Crash Bandicoot: More Than N Sane
by NoodleIsle
Summary: Crash, Coco and Crunch face peril all the time, and they can't catch a break, with Cortex plotting their demise each and everyday, they begin to wonder if this is all life has in store for them. Or maybe there's more out there, beyond N Sanity Island and their forest home.
1. Chapter 1

A lonely hut sat in a quiet, lush, vibrant forest, it was quite compact for what it was, with a circular, red, wooden door being the entrance. A short stone path leading in front of it, and a stone wall surrounding it as well. Smoke was quietly extruding from the tiny chimney that crookedly stood atop the roof of the hut. The sweet but sombre tones of birds chirping on this bright, glistening sunny day was soon brought to a halt.

The front door was thrown open, kicking up dust and almost flying off the hinges, and out flew an orange marsupial. He tripped and planted his face into the ground, spluttering a bit. His legs began to kick a bit due to the struggle of uprooting his skull from the ground. His red sneakers scuffing the dirt and the dirt staining his blue jeans a tad, he was able to pull himself out and he stumbled onto his rear end. Holding his head, his hands ruffled his Mohawk back into shape, and he adjusted his brown biker gloves as well.

Crash Bandicoot stood up, and turned around waiting for his family to join him on his casual day out. Soon a soft, female voice was heard from inside their home.

"Crash, I understand that you're excited but you could help us carry some stuff!", she shouted from indoors, before the audible sound of clattering and shattering followed. Out stumbled Crash's younger sister, Coco Bandicoot, her blonde hair slightly ruffled but she put it back into shape quickly. She was wearing a white t-shirt with a pink flower imprinted on the front, blue jeans also and pink sneakers. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, with a fringe in front, and she had a blue flower head to the top left of her hair, she was a little bit shorter than Crash.

Coco was lugging an assortment of sports balls and beach chairs, and tossed them on the floor after huffing. The brainy bandicoot, forgetting her laptop, went to quickly fetch it from inside, leaving Crash to pick up some of the equipment set before him.

Not long after, a bigger, red bandicoot emerged from the hut, he had jagged ears, was really buff and had a steel right hand. Crunch had a bunch of chairs under his left arm and a boombox over the other. "Hey bro", Crunch greeted Crash, who returned a smile, "I just thought we'd bring this baby Coco amped up recently, should be nice to have some tunes while we're chilling on the beach". Crash and Crunch waited for Coco to return so they could head out to the seafront and relax while the sun was blazing.

Coco came back outside, pink laptop in tow. Crunch raised an eyebrow, "You're bringing that thing to the beach? Isn't the point to enjoy the outside world?".

Coco frowned, grasping it slightly tighter, "Judge all you want, it's just with me in case I need it". She glanced at her brothers who were lugging everything, "Now, let's get going shall we?".

"Hold on, children", a wiser more soft voice commanded, out flew a floating mask, their guardian, Aku Aku. His feathers were as coloured and varied as always, assorted colours such as yellow, red, orange and purpe. His soft, yellow eyes were welcoming and warm along with his clear white smile.

Crunch turned to the beach in the distance past some trees down a rocky path, "Alright, let's get goin'". Crash nodded in agreement, and the family wandered down toward the sandy dunes of Island.

* * *

A few minutes later, the family had set up near an old chicken coop on the beach, where some rocks were scattered about and 'Skull Rock' sat on the other end of the valley. As the poultry pecked about perplexed, the bandicoots were just taking in the fresh air, and chatting a bit.

Crunch and Coco sat on some beach beds they brought, a green and pink one respectively. Slightly across from them was their middle brother, digging a massive hole. As Crash tossed clumps of sand about, some of the local wildlife wandered over, namely some crabs. Crash pulled his head out from the hole and saw one of the crustaceans, he waved his left hand and was soon clamped by the angry crab.

Crash began to run about frantically in the distance, desperately trying to remove the vice grip on his hand. Aku Aku noticed this and flew over to try and help him, of course he was aware he couldn't physically do much.

Coco saw this and chuckled at Crash's antics, and opened up her laptop and began to watch some video online that piqued her interest. Crunch lay with is sunglasses on, "Mm, that's some good sun comin' down", he claimed, basking in what would no doubt be a fine tan in a few days. Crunch's ears twitched a little hearing outside audio from Coco's laptop speakers, "What're you watching?", he asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

Coco answered, not taking her eyes off the screen, "Nothing much, some academy advertisement...", she was mesmerised by what the advert was promising, qualifications, experience, hands on work, the sort of thing she'd happily take in a heartbeat.

Crunch hummed, "Is it for animals like us? Or People?".

Coco narrowed her eyes, scanning the page, "We are people, Crunch, but yeah we're applicable! And it's on the Island? Where?".

Crunch groaned, "Probably that new area on the west side past the caverns. Some rich guy bought it so it was probably to invest in that, but count me out, we got our hands full as it is with those evil losers".

Coco seemed a tad down hearing that, she didn't disagree was the thing, Crunch was right, with all the heroic world-saving, how could they ever hope to get a proper education?

Crunch continued "Besides, it's gonna be hard to get a job on a remote island, unless they build some shopping complex or something, haha!". Crunch was jolly laughing to himself, all Coco thought then was how great that would be.

Soon a shadow was cast over her eyes, and Crash had a frisbee in his hand, smiling and gently waving it as a hint. Coco gave a soft smile, "Alright" she said laughing, she took the frisbee from him and began to wind up her arm. "Go long!", she cheered, tossing it into the air, the frisbee gliding throughout the blue sky, Crash turned and dashed after his target.

Crunch chuckled seeing Crash skedaddle away, "Guy never gets tired, does he?".

Coco shook her head, "Nope, can always count on him to try his best".

The purple frisbee had finished ascending and began to descend, and landed on top of the sea. Crash's phobia kicked in and he stopped just short of the sea, the frisbee was just in front of him thankfully, so he wouldn't have to dip too deep at least, but nonetheless he had a sinking feeling just seeing it adrift there. Nevertheless he reached out for the disc, only to see the small toy began to shake a tad. Sharks? No way, they didn't swim in these waters much...

Crash's face sunk as what began to emerge from the water was worse, way worse than sharks.

Meanwhile Aku Aku and Crunch were having a small debate on the benefits of certain diets, of course Aku's time on the planet had been much longer so his views were a bit more old fashioned. "I said it before and I'll say it again", Crunch began, "Just eat less and exercise more, and the strain your body goes through will be all worth it in the end".

As Aku Aku noted Crunch's point and was about to add his own views on the subject, the group noticed Crash's absence. Coco sighed, "If he's gone and got himself lost in the caverns again I swear". Coco slowly put her trusty laptop aside and stood up, stretching and looking around, she could see Crash a little far away, and something else. Coco's eyes widened, "Not again... C'mon Crunch!" she commanded, zipping over to Crash's direction.

Crunch looked lost, "Huh? What?".

Aku Aku turned, then groaned, "The usual...".

* * *

Crash stood still, shocked at the size of the behemoth that stood before him, a pure mechanical marvel and (no doubt) killing machine. A giant, fuelled weapon of anarchy was standing, looking down onto him, it was donning a huge saw-blade on its right hand and a mounted machine gun on the left, with a head that was oddly shaped. It was like an odd oval shape, and it had a huge, metallic 'N' plastered on its forehead. All this, and the oh so distinct laughter of a scientific madman echoed from inside.

Inside the head of the robot, sat a small, angry, maniacal man in a slick leather chair. He was yellow skinned, had black hair and a flat head, he too had an 'N' on his forehead. As he began to move the levers in his yellow-gloved hands, his laughter rose. Dr. Neo Cortex was having the time of his life, finally he had trapped the infernal bandicoot and caught him off guard, this would be an easy kill.

"I can't believe it was this simple...", he started, his voice low and sinister, with a hint of arrogance too. "It only took waiting for a couple hours submerged underwater, but now, I've got the rodent right in my grasp...". Cortex rubbed his hands together in glee, the suddenly stopped, "What the-".

As soon as he saw something was up, a giant rock was tossed at one of the robot's eyes, knocking it back slightly, followed by a grunt from Cortex. He didn't sound pleased at all, Crash turned and was relieved his family had come to assist, Coco, Crunch (carrying a load of said rocks) and Aku Aku stood next to him. They all faced the robot in unison.

Cortex growled, "Of course it wouldn't be easy... !", he bellowed, causing his henchman to turn to him.

The rocket-headed, pale, crazed lunatic was startled by his master's sudden outburst at him. "Y-yes master?", whimpered, at a slightly lower part of the mechanical monster, surrounded by monitors.

"Your surveillance wasn't good at all! You said only the usual bandicoot was approaching!", Cortex yelled, flinched a little bit.

"With respect, sir, this is quite a big machine...", commented tapping his fingers together awkwardly.

Cortex raised an eyebrow, as if he was wondering if was questioning his sheer brilliance in robotic design. "Never mind", he muttered, turning back around, "Let's get this show on the road!". Cortex jammed one of the levers forward, and the mech appropriately moved, aggressively launching forward for a strike with its saw.

The heroes aptly dodged the strike, the blade whirring into the sand and sending particles of the tiny granules everywhere. Crash tightened his hands, a determined look on his face, ready to fight, Crunch and Aku Aku stood beside him. Coco however, was looking back at her laptop sat afar, it's polished exterior reflecting the sunlight, like it was asking to be fetched.

"Ok guys", Coco began, her eyes darting back and forth from her possession and the enemy. "You distract Cortex as much as you can, I have an idea on how to exploit this flawed design". Before her brothers could respond she leaped into action. Cortex however noticed this.

" ! Activate targeting estimation!" Cortex demanded, and soon his view was covered in many targets, he however was focused on the blonde bandicoot. "Run for your life, smart one, it will be your misstep...".

Cortex began to fire an array of bullets toward Coco, Crunch ran over to the chicken coop and pried one of the walls off of it, chicken began to fly everywhere panicking. Crunch pulled up the red wooden wall, Aku Aku dashed over and fused his power with it to make a literal shield for Crunch to wield, covering his little sister.

Crash was left in the open, thinking fast before his arch-enemy could focus him down, he sprinted to the distressed chickens, scooping them up and running behind the cover Crunch provided. Coco had nabbed her laptop, and began to run an executable on her desktop, "Ok guys, we need to get a full view of this thing, so try and combat it, my laptop will scan it for any possible weakness!".

With a firm nod, Crash and Crunch sprung into action once the rattling had ceased, and it was clear they had to reload. The shield was tattered and ruined beyond repair, so Crunch quickly tossed it aside and darted over to the enemy, as did Crash. Aku Aku stayed by Coco's side, "I can give you a brief window of invulnerability but it's all I can muster right now, Coco", he warned.

The mech began to grind and churn, its gun shifting into a rocket launcher, and quickly began to fire a barrage of rockets to their furry foes. Crash slid under a couple, and weaved through some narrowly, finally spinning one back at the robot, causing it to explode right in its gut. Crunch saw this and smirked, "Nice find, Crash, I'll help!", Crunch grabbed one of the rockets and right when it was about to detonate, whirled it around and lobbed it right back at Cortex.

"Not good...", commented, as the lights inside the machine began to blink red.

Coco noticed this, "Guys! You made an opening in the chest!", she pointed to the exposed area where some cogs where winding together. Crash narrowed his eyes and grinned, exiting the scene.

Coco put her laptop aside, as it wasn't actually helping, and pulled out a wrench of hers, pink and covered with flowers painted on. However the paint was a little worn since she used it so much, she jogged over and nodded to Crunch, who nodded back.

Crunch put his hands together and Coco hopped onto them, Crunch launched her up into the air at tremendous speed. Coco wound her right arm up and tossed the wrench, it spinning rapidly and puncturing the robot's exposed weakness.

Cortex began to sweat a bit, wiggling the levers quite a lot as well, "Stupid, rodents...", he growled. Coco landed safely, she and Crunch looked on in victory, but not for long, as the mech pulled out the wrench, and threw it away into the distance, past some caverns.

Coco shrieked in shock and Crunch grew more irritated. "It's one thing to threaten me and my siblings", Crunch began, pacing slowly forward, "But you go and throw away something so valuable to them, you got another thing coming, friend". Crunch cracked his knuckles, but just as he did Cortex began to holler with laughter.

"I don't see what you can do, I still have a complete battle suit of armour", he taunted. Crash came back, panting, everyone turned to him in silence, and Crash pulled out a chicken he had saved earlier, his smile was wide. Cortex's face dropped, "I hate chickens...", he moaned.

Crash lobbed the bird right over, and as it clucked and freaked out, it was caught inside the gears of the machine, it suddenly stopped moving and held still. Inside, Cortex and 's faces were melancholic, and in a matter of seconds the robot was exploding all over, causing the wreckage to plummet backwards and cause a huge wave from the ocean to splash onto the island.

Cortex flew out on his hoverboard, with holding on underneath for dear life, "Once again you meddlesome rats got lucky, we'll see who's lucky next time!", Cortex warned, flying away quickly, causing to shriek.

A moment of silence passed, and the family were relieved, Aku Aku sighed, "Even when we want time off to relax, we are burdened by Cortex and his nefarious schemes". The chicken Crash threw slowly descended and began to peck about at the ground some more, unharmed. Crash picked it up and patted it on it's tiny head.

Coco turned around and walked back over to her laptop, still running the unneeded diagnostic, she turned it off and looked quite down. In the distance, Crunch was giving Crash a friendly ruffling of his hair, "Way to go, bro! Chickens do help a lot huh". As Crunch said that he leaning down to the chicken in Crash's arms, who proceeded to peck him in the face, Crunch shrieked but laughed at the same time.

Coco did smile softly seeing her brothers celebrate, but she was just a bit down due to her favourite wrench now lost on the island. It would probably take days to find it, and she often not seen without it.

Aku Aku glided over to the children, "Well, I feel this day has been slightly soured, may I suggest we relax at home?". The others all agreed and headed back after packing up, Crash lugged a bunch of chickens with him, needing to find them a new home.

Coco held her laptop under her left arm, "That's sweet you're bringing them with you, Crash", she smiled.

Crunch nodded, "Gotta agree, I'll get to making them a new coop tomorrow, they'd be a bit safer with us than out near the sea where Cortex lingers".

As the family laughed together at Cortex's failure, they slowly walked in a line together toward home.

* * *

The front room of the hut was very natural, wooden floor, some rugs on top in various patterns. A fireplace with various pictures of the bandicoot family, and even one of Crash and his ex-girlfriend, Tawna. Crash was currently fast asleep this evening, adrift in his dreams and completely comfortable. He was no doubt spent from the fight earlier.

Coco was making dinner for the family, not because she wanted to, but because she was the only one who could cook anything worth eating in the house. Crunch would just slap loads of protein nonsense all over the plate and have it all be meat. Crash would only go and make something 'wumpa' related, and that got old fast for the others.

The kitchen was small and cozy, there were countless fruits and vegetables in the assorted cupboards, not to mention the slabs of meat they had in their fridge-freezer. As Coco stirred the soup she was making, the steam emanated from the pot, only furthering her stomach growling. At the back of her mind she was still bothered about losing a prized possession today, but she did help stop Cortex and from wrecking their home once again, so that made it worth it.

Crunch was in the garage, a place he frequented as all of his bodybuilding equipment was in here, along with some of Coco's tech stuff. He had it all, punching bags, dumbbells, benches, squat racks... Anything you'd find in your typical gym, he had it, his siblings had no idea how, but he found them. It was his haven to get away from it all, in his own way, pushing his body further meant protecting others further.

Crunch was currently doing sit-ups quietly to some music being played in the room, next to him was his old kart from the Velo Grand Prix a few years ago, behind his kart were Crash and Coco's. They were sadly not as maintained as they used to be, but they kept them for memories. Crunch was proud of his little siblings today, they did good, he thought they did very well. His reminiscing was brought to a halt when he heard Coco calling that dinner was ready, and he leaped up ready to eat.

At the table, Coco sat on one end, with Crunch and Crash on the sides, ploughing through their meal at a shocking pace. She rolled her eyes and took her time, savouring the flavour. In about a couple minutes, the two brothers belched simultaneously and gave a thumbs up, a sign they were satisfied. Aku Aku floated in slowly, joining them in conversing at the table. Once Coco was finished, she collected all of the bowls and placed them in the kitchen by the sink, the family had a rotor for washing up, and it was Crash's turn today.

* * *

As the night sky began to spread over, the hut's lights were turned on, and whilst Crash was cleaning up from their dinner, elsewhere Cortex was flying away from the island, toward his rustic, rocky castle fortress.

Cortex's hoverboard was chugging painfully due to the combined weight of him and , and soon it began to descend, crashing onto the floor by the front door to Cortex's lair. Cortex landed on his feet, brushing bits of charred ash off of his clothes, and landed on his head, whining a little bit in the distance. Cortex pressed a button on one of his wrists that opened up the creaking door.

Inside the main room were countless machines, machinations and robotics, all dark blue and glowing, very ominous. In the center was their main table for concocting evil schemes, sat around it were a few other villains, Tiny Tiger, a purely muscled Tiger, not the brightest but far from useless. He sat grinning in his blissful way with his red sneakers and green cloth pants.

Dingodile, sat with his trusty flamethrower at his side, it was wheezing slightly, he gave a small nod to Cortex's presence. He was also donning his blue jeans to be decent in public.

Pinstripe, one of Cortex's most prized creations, was also there, his slick greasy black hair reflecting the lamp light off its surface, he was suavely dressed.

Finally Ripper Roo, a more unhinged but still useful asset to the Cortex Commandos, he was giggling to himself about lord knows what in his tightened straight jacket. The blue fur on his head twitching a little as well.

They all glanced over, Pinstripe adjusted his maroon suit slightly, "Rough day, huh boss?".

Cortex sighed, "Failure, again", he started, walking over and past the mutated animals, "One day I'll have that rat gasping for air...".

The other villains looked concerned, but didn't pry into Cortex, they continued what they were doing before he arrived, playing poker. Pinstripe placed down his cards, "Straight", causing the others to groan, except Roo who just seemed confused as to what game they were playing.

Cortex ascended many rocky, spiralling stairs and ended up in the command room he had used to so long. Around the room were countless monitors and scanning equipment, weapons including his typical ray-gun, and all sorts of blackboard with various attempted plans scribbled on them. In the centre, much like downstairs sat a huge oval table with chairs designated for the other villains to sit and discuss plots.

"Well well well, look who didn't achieve their goals AGAIN!" a booming, heavy voice yelled across the room, Cortex slightly flinched and sighed in response. Floating toward him slowly was a darkened, wooden mask, with a yellow zigzag pattern across his forehead, and bones beside his head. His expression wasn't one of joy, heaven forbid, he was annoyed, miffed, furious. Uka Uka, Aku Aku's evil twin brother and arch-enemy, growled in Cortex's face, to which Cortex tried to smile to make things less heated.

Uka Uka's dark yellow eyes couldn't even express the frustration he had with this snivelling scientist, "I gave you simple instructions, and you couldn't even follow them right?!".

Cortex winced, "T-Today was just an off day! Honest...", his hands shaking as they covered his face, as if he was going to be struck.

Uka Uka shook himself as if shaking his head, "Why I expect any of you to do anything right, is beyond me... We've tried ambushes, assaults, tag teaming, none of it seems to work. Especially since most of the power crystals and gems are in their hands now, wonder who's fault that is...".

Cortex opened one of his eyes, "Yes well, uhm, maybe it's just how we go about it, we haven't tried a large scale assault on the rodents in quite some time".

Uka Uka turned back around suddenly, he was about to scream but stopped himself, as Cortex went back to cowering, Uka Uka grinned. "You're right, we haven't done that in quite some time indeed. Cortex! Gather the others and assemble them here, it's time we resort to one of my favourite strategies, brute force...".

Cortex nodded and scampered away back downstairs, Uka Uka was left laughing to himself.

* * *

Back at the bandicoot hut, the family were sat around the fireplace, Crunch was sat on one of the green armchairs in the room, lifting some small weights. Crash was warming his hands by the crimson flame, with Aku Aku tyring not to get too close to the fire. Coco sat typing away on her laptop, it was a nice, quiet ambience about the room.

Soon Crunch broke the silence, "When will they ever let up?". Everyone turned to him, Crunch didn't look up, he just kept lifting, he continued, "Each time we beat 'em, they just keep coming back for more, and more...".

Aku Aku knew exactly what Crunch meant, he had a long feud with his twin brother, Uka Uka for ages that was still ongoing. "Crunch", Aku began, sounding quite mellow, "It's not an easy fight, but it's one that's worth it, we're responsible for saving Island so many times".

Coco spoke up, "He's right, Crunch, and besides, if we don't fight them off, who will? The Tribe down the river? Papu Papu and his goons? They wouldn't stand a chance".

Crunch sighed, "Yeah, you're right, it's just tiring y'know? Can't think of the last time we got a break from them".

Aku Aku hummed, "A vacation is overdue perhaps". Crash nodded heavily approval, following with a wide smile. Aku Aku chuckled, "Well then, we best discuss this tomorrow, because right now I could use some rest, I suggest you all head to bed soon as well". With that, Aku glided away into the deeper parts of the house, he slept in one of the extensions at the back of the house that Crunch helped make in his spare time. It was pretty much a tool shed, but Aku Aku didn't mind it. Aku Aku placed himself down on one of the shelves among a bunch of other tools and utensils and slowly closed his eyes.

Crash hopped up and waltzed out of the room, coming to a narrow hallway, as his shoes clunked against the wooden floor, he eventually found the door to his room at the end of the hall on his left. Upon opening the door, Crash was greeted to his small and incredibly messy, bedroom. There were countless jeans and pink boxers strewn about the place, with some shoes dotted about a bit. A few pictures hung on the wall next to the door frame, snapshots of Crash, Coco and , Cortex's old lab assistant, of all people, after Crash shot down the Cortex Vortex years ago. There were a few of the family, minus Crunch, at the Time Twister event that followed a year prior, and even one of Crash holding a racing trophy.

Crash's bed was a simple mattress on a few wooden crates he'd collected (normal ones thankfully), and he had a very thin, albeit comfy, red blanket that almost covered the bed. However instead of going under the cover of his bed, he just landed face first on it, and was out like a light.

Crunch lay in his bed, hands behind his head, pondering. His room was opposite Crash's, and was not much different, if only for the abundance of fitness magazines and some tools for when he needed to tune up his metal arm. His bed was in a slightly better state than his little brother's however, a proper King-sized bed with some dark beige camo duvet on top. Crunch was motionless, minus his slow breathing, he really did want to take a break from all this heroic fighting all the time. He enjoyed it, sure, and he did like saving people, but right now all he could think of was that there had to be something more for him and his family. He was essentially the shield, and loved the job, but had this empty feeling eating away at him.

Coco's room fared better in terms of tidiness, however that didn't stop the workbench in the corner of her room making a mess with assorted wrenches, spanners and screwdrivers about. Her bed was a single mattress with a soft, pink duvet and pillows. Coco had just turned off her bedside lamp, yawning gently, she put her laptop down and pushed it slightly under her bed. She stood up and went to her printer on the other end of the room, it was chugging heavily printing out something, she pinched the edge of the paper and carefully pulled it out, smiling. She turned around and stood on her bed, pinning the newly formed picture into the wall, the A4 paper gently moving due to the soft wind coming through her window to her right. As Coco knelt down, looking up at the picture, she bobbed up and down a little in glee, she then got under her duvet and went to sleep within minutes.

The wind gently drifted through the room, the poster lay stuck in the wall, saying 'N Sanity Academy: N Role today!'


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Forgive me if this is obnoxious to slap a note right here, but I am sorry, this story gained a small bit more traction than I expected. I had coursework galore at uni and only recently had I checked on this. I actually typed the majority of this up months ago but have decided it should continue. Mostly just anxious about how to write it properly, I am sorry for the HUGE gap between chapters, I will try to be more consistent now I'm free.**

* * *

The morning sun dawned upon N Sanity Island, the beloved yellow rays seeping through the many trees and leaves surrounding the Bandicoot's hut.

Aku Aku and Crunch were the first up this day, both at their wooden, natural dinner table. Crunch was having some oats and protein 'slop' as some called it, while Aku didn't need to eat. "The sun seems to be bright and vibrant today, Crunch", Aku noted, "It may be the perfect day to go out and exercise again".

Crunch finished his meal efficiently and nodded, "Yeah! I'll see if Crash 'n' Coco wanna head out too". After placing his bowl on the kitchen-side, Crunch walked down to the hallway where their bedrooms resided. He tapped gently on Coco's door, "Sis? You up?", he asked, there was silence, he then continued, "Was just wondering if you wanted to join me and woody for a walk or something". More silence followed, not long after, Crunch heard a drilling sound coming from down the hall, Coco must've been up to her usual routine of tinkering with her gadgets and other mechanical doodads.

Inside the garage, Coco lay under a large, beige sheet with just the lower half of her body showing, she had a screwdriver in her mouth and was causing some blue sparks to flicker underneath the large blanket that her latest 'project' lay. Crunch entered smirking, "Still working on whatever that is huh?", he leaned on the door and chuckled.

Coco stopped working briefly and then responded, "Lessh mockhing more helhing", her voice muffled by the tool between her teeth. Her hand reached out beside her left leg grabbing some black and red painted wire cutters, which were followed by some sounds of snipping and cutting.

"Come again?" Crunch mocked, Coco huffed and took the tool out of her mouth, and lifted up the carpet, frowning at her big brother. She lifted her green tinted goggles and placed them on her forehead. Crunch sighed, "At least eat breakfast before ya get to work, Coco. It helps your mind think clearly and you'll have the energy to keep going as well".

Coco looked away slightly, she wasn't going to dispute that, Crunch was right, but she was just too avid to continue on her project she'd been working on for weeks now. "I'll be out in a bit...", she claimed, going straight back to tinkering.

Crunch grinned, "Alright, I'll fetch Crash", and with that, Crunch had left the room, Coco peered to check if he was gone. She took the carpet rug off of her invention and smiled softly, she brought out some spray paint cans and began to shake them.

* * *

Inside Crash's room, the main marsupial lay on his bed, snoring, adrift in the land of slumber. Crunch tried to knock gently on the door, but due to his strength it was more like a thunderous shock-wave that travelled through the door. Crash was briefly startled, his eyes barely awake and groggy. Crunch looked apologetic, "Sorry bro, just wondering if you wanted to head out in a little while?".

Crash perked up and nodded eagerly and hopped onto his feet, belting out of the room and swiftly past Crunch. "Woah", Crunch commented, "Little fella is up and at 'em when you mention an adventure". Crunch could hear audible sounds down the hallway of Crash preparing, eating, and tossing aside the bowl that contained his food. Knowing him it was some wumpa related slosh. Crunch chuckled, "Guess that's three of us ready... Coco!" he began to holler walking back toward the garage.

As Crunch approached the door and leaned his hand over the doorknob, Coco hopped out and stumbled a bit, "All ready!", she stated. However, the oil stains on her clothes and face, along with the fact she still had some tools on hand, meant that she really wasn't.

Crunch raised an eyebrow, "We'll be outside", he said walking to the front door. Coco closed the garage door, she then went to get changed and cleaned up. Crunch, upon leaving the hut, saw Crash running in place and exhaling heavily, Aku Aku had a blue cap on and a whistle around his... Neck? It didn't make much sense but somehow it was levitating with him.

Crunch stood next to Crash and glanced at Aku Aku, "Nice getup" he teased.

Aku Aku laughed softly, "Well I can't exactly 'train' with you, so I thought I should play the part of the coach". Crunch nodded, he couldn't agree more, but still was confused on how the whistle, reflecting the sun into his eyes, was staying afloat.

Aku Aku then commanded, "Now give me fourty push-ups Crunch, shouldn't be a problem for you, right?". Crash chuckled slightly, slowing down his running and looking to his right at Crunch, who just stood there.

Crunch scoffed, "I think it's cute, Aku, that you wanna be a coach and all, but I have my own training regiment that I can stick wi-". Aku Aku suddenly blew his whistle aggressively in Crunch's face, taking Crunch back slightly. "Woah woah woah!", Crunch began, "What was that about?!".

Aku Aku spat the whistle out of his mouth, it dangled underneath him, "I don't believe I stuttered, Crunch. If we want to be on top of Cortex's schemes, then you had best get to it". Crunch, mouth slightly agape, was about to retort, when Aku Aku whistled yet again to cut him off, Crunch began to grumble as he got to the warm-up. Aku Aku watched Crunch get to work, "It's not me being malicious, Crunch, it's to help".

Crash began to laugh a little harder, only to notice Aku Aku's yellow eyes staring him down, "If that's so funny Crash, you can do a few laps around the beach first, and show us how it's done". Crash halted, he pointed to himself in confusion, and Aku Aku just nodded in response, "Go on", he said smirking.

Crash sighed and began to jog away from the hut toward the coast, past the threshold of grass that separated bandicoot from beach.

* * *

Inside Coco's room, Coco heard what sounded like a gym whistle being blown, as it was echoing about the trees surrounding the house. "I don't even wanna know...", Coco mumbled, she had been ready for a few moments already, but she currently had her iconic pink laptop to her left, on her bed. She got up off of her bed and went to the corner of her room where some old gadgets and a pink backpack were set. After collecting a few things she went down the hall, bag in tow, and slapped a red cap on.

Coco stood in the front doorway, then hopped onto the stone path that lead outwards for the hut. "All ready guys", she claimed, having a little skip in her step, she stopped next to Crunch, "You began already?".

Crunch just finished his beginning press-ups, "It wasn't my idea, ask Lombardi over there", Crunch joked nudging his head forward to Aku Aku's direction. In the distance it appeared that Aku Aku was hollering at Crash to 'pick up the pace, or pick up the pieces'.

Coco giggled, "So you don't like someone telling you what to do when it's YOUR area of expertise, huh?", she asked, walking backwards and holding her backpack handles over her shoulders. Crunch gently rotated his right arm in a windmill motion and walked forward beside her, he didn't respond which pretty much confirmed Coco's suspicion.

The family had gathered by the sea opposite their forest, a semi-circle of tiki-heads lay there, mouths wide open as if expecting something to be placed there. Their spikes, while high up and atop their heads, were nonetheless dangerous and intimidating.

Crash had just finished lapping the beach, on that side of the island anyway, and was panting a fair bit. However he seemed to remedy this by pulling out a wumpa fruit he had stashed in his jean pocket, a quick bite and he was back to normal.

Aku Aku smiled, "Well done, Crash, now I think we should go for a short walk before getting back to it".

Coco cut in, as she had an area of interest in her head. This N Sanity Academy was apparently just behind skull rock, now to get there, the gang would have to travel through a few short tunnels with some spiky drops. Not an ideal situation, in fact they wondered why that cave hadn't been sorted out sooner. "Um, if I may suggest, how about we check the East side of N Sanity Island?", Coco asked, trying not to sound like she'd get something out of it.

Crunch folded his arms and looked at the caves Coco was insisting on going through, "Isn't that where some rich snob bought the area for that academy thing you were on about yesterday?". Aku Aku looked interested, and Crash, knowing he had only been to one academy, being the Academy of Evil, began to be on alert.

Crunch then narrowed his eyes, he saw someone by the cave entrance, "Hold up", he said under his breath, "There's some guy over there, we rarely see anyone 'round this side of the island besides the natives". The others looked as well, Crunch was right, there was someone dressed as a construction worker who looked to be tinkering with something.

With the family all exchanging quick glances to each other, they wandered over to the worker, after quickly climbing some large fallen rock to gain some leverage, the group had halted. Normally, there were two stone pillars atop the sea to make it somewhat possible to navigate across to the tunnels. Instead, there was just a straight up bridge, sturdy and wooden.

Coco smirked, "Better than having to double jump across, huh, Crash?".

Crash nodded, still nervous about the deep blue lagoon beneath the bandicoots as they walked across the bridge and came to a stop by the individual Crunch had spotted just now.

"Excuse me", Aku Aku began, tossing his silly cap and whistle aside, "We can't help but notice that you're modifying, well, part of our home, what's going on?".

The worker turned around, he was a brown rabbit, both ears flattened by his yellow safety helmet, he had typical buck teeth, though one tooth was slightly shorter than the other. He had some black sneakers on and a pair of green shorts for clothing. "Oh! Sorry pals", he had a slightly southern accent and drawl with his speech. "We're just on commission here to make this cave more accessible to the public", he said patting part of the wall gently, only for a small rock to drop onto his helmet.

The family looked at him silently, not in a mean way, they were just confused, how could they not have noticed their home change so suddenly? They were outside almost every day.

The rabbit laughed nervously, "Name's Rod", he said holding his hand out. Crash shook it smiling a toothy grin, Rod raised an eyebrow, "S-sorry and you are?".

Coco pulled Crash back a bit, "You'll have to forgive him, he's a bit of a mute, this is Crash, I'm Coco". Rod began to relax a bit, Coco continued, "This big guy is Crunch, and our floating mask here is our guardian, Aku Aku". Crunch gave Rod a nod of approval, Aku Aku did the same.

Rod pulled out a hammer from his tool belt, "Well it's nice to meet you all! Unfortunately we're gonna be busy cleaning this place up, dangerous pits in there", he claimed.

Crunch laughed, "Trust me, we know, is it ok if we pass through? We've been through countless times, we live just over that way", he stated pointing his thumb to the forest in the distance.

Rod looked into the slightly dark cavern, then back to the bandicoots, "I mean, we're really not supposed to admit civilians fellas, we should be done in a few days. What with that new academy a-startin' we're just making it easier for people to go about this island".

Coco suddenly thought, where was this guy from? There weren't many residents of N Sanity Island. "I'm sorry", she began, "Not to sound rude but where exactly are you from? Do you live on this island too?". She was trying not to lose her mind at the rumour of the academy being real, her inner excitement was growing.

Rod scratched the back of his head, "Not rude at all, we're from all sorts of other islands and cities around the world, there's a few of us workers around here right now. I myself am from good ol' Middle Island, just to the north from here".

Coco looked surprised, "The same middle island with the mining facility? Well, abandoned now of course".

Aku Aku interjected, "If I recall, there was a lost city as well, riddled with lizards and bats".

Rod gave a quick nod, "The very same, years back that place went through some real trouble from that Cortex fella".

Crunch chuckled, "Yeah, well this guy right here, from what I'm told, stopped that Cortex 'fella' and saved the Wumpa Islands", Crunch said, smacking Crash on the back.

Rod looked beyond surprised, "You were the one that helped free Middle Island?".

The gang nodded quickly, Rod grinned and hugged Crash out of nowhere, "Thank you, you saved me and ma daughter from that tyrannical man!". Crash just patted him on the head, better than nothing, Rod let go and sighed, "Go on, you guys can pass on through, just wear these as you go through".

Rod held out some spare safety helmets, which the family quickly applied, Coco swapped her cap for it as to not cause discomfort. Crash put Aku Aku's on his head, or rather just slapped it on his noggin. Rod then saw them off as they began to trek through the wounded path of the cave's interior, waving goodbye.

* * *

"I liked him", Coco claimed, "He was really kind, helps that Crash is on his good side", she said slightly chuckling.

Aku Aku nodded, "Seems that your heroic deeds have paid off, Crash, you've granted us passage to the other side ahead of their schedule".

The tunnels were a lot more safer than years ago when Crash first went through them. The circular spiked pits were still there, granted, but there were some makeshift bridges that the workers had clearly installed to make navigation a tad easier. Some scaffolding was now laid above the pits, possibly a cover for the spikes.

The group had just reached the end of the path, and had now arrived at the eastern side of the island.

Now what they expected to see was a large cliff-side, where Farmer Earnest and his chicken farm lay atop, and a small wooden dock for boats by the shore. However, the area had slightly changed, from what they could see, the beach was intact, the farm still was atop the cliff to their left. The dock, though, had been expanded to an almost huge port, there were up to 7 different boats of varying sizes, dropping off and picking up various anthropomorphic animals.

The gang took of their helmets, with Crash yanking Aku's off of his head, Crunch's eyes widened, "Didn't realise we had a tourist attraction...".

Coco saw something that caught her eye though, "No, I think they're coming from, and going to that". Coco pointed across the sandy dunes to a large, gray angular building, which looked to have a few other buildings extruding from it, it was a gigantic behemoth of a building. The central building was almost a skyscraper, with the entrance door looking minuscule compared to the scale of the main building. There were some gold plated, albeit a bit tacky, letters plastered over the entrance door, saying 'N Sanity Academy'.

There were various other buildings attached to it, all of which plastered with many windows showing glimmers of the interior, but not much could be made out from outside. All the group could focus on right now, was this spontaneous new construction that had arrived on their home. Coco was becoming ecstatic, Crash was uneasy at the huge presence before him, as it had a slightly industrial feel. Crunch was looking at the various other animals walking about and chatting. There were all sorts of other creatures roaming about, and like the bandicoots, had anthropomorphic traits.

There were assorted kangaroos, rabbits, koala bears, a few grizzly bears (who thankfully weren't too huge), weasels and various other mammals. There were even a few other kinds such as birds and reptiles. Crunch hummed, "You reckon they're all from Middle Island too?".

Aku Aku glanced over at Crunch, "Now, Crunch, we must be accepting of these visitors, they're clearly here for this, academy. Not to cause trouble". Most of the animals going to and from the building seemed to be wearing some sort of a uniform, and were all in varying groups. "This seems to be a well occupied area, and it seems harmless...", Aku Aku thought aloud, "Shall we have a look at this new building?".

The pack moved as one, walking past some of the boats, some of which were dropping off more animals and picking up some to drive elsewhere, most likely to their homes.

As they arrived at the entrance, there was someone standing at the front with flyers, she was what appeared to be a female eagle, she was wearing the academy's supposed uniform. A deep ocean blue blazer, with a white shirt beneath, and a tie that alternated from yellow and blackin a striped pattern. She seemed to have chosen a skirt, it looked as if women had an option of which they'd prefer. She looked to have the same sneakers Crash once wore, in a purple variety. She also had some feathers on her head tied back into a ponytail, brown irises, a minor bit of mascara, a smaller beak than expected for an eagle. She looked to be physically healthy, she had a decent muscle tone for a young woman, she couldn't be more taller than Crash.

"Hi guys!", she said in a slightly drawn out tone, "You applying for the N rolement?", she asked holding out some promotional merch for the academy. A mix of wristbands, flyers and cups for free it looked like.

Crunch picked up one of the wristbands between his thumb and index finger, it was tiny! How could he fit this onto him? He then scowled at the girl, "Uh, we're just looking around".

The representative smirked, "Well, let's be real if you're on this island it's probably for N sanity Academy. There's not much else here otherwise". The group felt a slight sting from that condescending comment, she continued, "I'm Jill, by the way, do head inside and have a look around the place if you want. You can apply to join the academy or just hang around, nothing against that".

Jill stepped aside as if a motion to say 'go on in', Coco was freaking out, it wasn't just some nonsense she had seen on the internet. This was an genuine building for academics, learning, growth, and she could apply today, and she lived a short walk away as well!

Coco took a few steps toward the large sliding glass doors and turned to her brothers, "Well? Let's check it out!". Crash was hesitant, not out of fear, just caution, but he followed slowly.

The two of them entered the lobby, a large vacant space with a few benches by the giant glass windows that surrounded the room. It was almost like some college campus, the colour palette was admittedly a bit bland, mostly grey texturing about the place with a few banners placed to advertise the open day. There were a fair few pillars holding the interior up, and there were two pairs of double doors on the opposite wall, one on the left, and another on right.

Above the left was a yellow banner for 'N rolement', Coco and Crash immediately began to waltz over to it, but noticed that Crunch wasn't coming with, same as Aku Aku.

Crunch sighed, "I don't know, I think I'll pass, this place seems a bit-", his eyes suddenly saw a promotional poster in the lobby of the academy. Crunch's eyes glistened, "State of the art gym and training facility?!".

Crash and Coco both smirked at each other, as Crunch and Aku happily walked in and joined them for a walk around the place.

Suddenly Jill ran in from behind, "Hey guys! Don't mind me showing you around do you? You seem chill". She seemed inviting enough, and it was better to have a representative than getting lost in this huge maze of classrooms and facilities. Jill shrugged, "Plus, I'm an easy gal to talk to, pretty much everyone here loves me".

Coco squinted in response to the odd ego fuel that Jill was spouting, she was probably just trying to impress the 'new guys' that they were.

Crunch smiled, "That'd be great, I couldn't help but notice the advert outside about training facilities?".

Jill glanced over Crunch, finally getting a good look at him, he was built, obviously. Jill suddenly seemed a bit more aloof, "Oh, well, yes we do have a few facilities, I can happily show you around", she said laughing nervously. She caught herself slightly changing her persona and recovered, "W-would you like to come with down this hallway to our left?".

Crunch didn't pick up on Jill's slightly flirtatious mannerisms, and simply added another question, "So, do I have to be a student at this place to use any of the equipment or?".

Coco cleared her throat awkwardly, "Uh, I think if she just shows us around first, Crunch, we can ask questions as we go", Crunch shrugged, and Jill lead them down the Ground Floor hallway.

* * *

A group of menacing, devilish, sinister characters sat around a huge, oval, purple table with a large, yellow letter N in the centre, plated into it. Dr. Cortex had assembled his forces into the main room, per Uka Uka's request.

Cortex sat at the head of the table, his hands clasped together, "Gentlemen", he began, sounding quite sombre, "I don't know about all of you, but we've been trying to abolish those filthy rats for years now". As Cortex said that, all of the fellow villains noticed his hands tightening, making the rubber from his gloves give an audible crackling sound.

All of his mooks exchanged slightly concerned glances, Cortex continued, "And I have found myself getting progressively more frustrated...", he stood up, his hands now placed flat on the large table. "All the times we've been pounded, foiled, defeated... I find no joy in it at all".

Pinstripe nodded slowly in agreement, Tiny looked perplexed, Ripper Roo was silent for once and Dingodile leaned on the table a bit, arms folded.

"I find it, fuelling", Cortex claimed, causing the others to be quite surprised, "That's right", Cortex added, "I may have been beaten countless times, but if I can just manage one victory, one hard fought win, to just see the life drain from that rotten rodent's eyes... I would be ecstatic".

Cortex's mooks all grinned in approval, "Sure, we haven't been able to accomplish much on our own up until now. Which is why I-", Cortex glanced at Uka Uka, who growled at the yellow scientist. He laughed nervously, "WE. Have decided to scrap all these calculated plans, and for once just try a frontal assault, on that puny hut that they live in".

N Gin waltzed into the room, "Forgive me, Dr. Cortex, I was just fixing up your trusty hover board and-".

Cortex waved his hand, "Yes yes very good. Go and fetch our up and coming mastermind, and, if possible, try to find some of our other old comrades from the old days".

N Gin scratched part of his missile lodged in his skull, "Wh-where would I begin, sir?".

Cortex rubbed his charcoal-black beard, then cackled, "I know exactly who to summon. Now, everyone else, gear up, we have some rats to exterminate".

He left into the shadows that were behind him, gone. Dingodile and Pinstripe glanced at each other, with a single nod, the two went to gear up, leaving Tiny and Ripper Roo to ponder what they should bring to this battle.

* * *

Jill lead the pack, there were various other groups of animals looking around with other guides sprawling the hallways. "Now the ground floor is coincidentally where most of our gym equipment and such are", Jill motioned to a room to their right, past the many large glass panes were a few already enrolled students getting fit and using the various weights and equipment.

Crunch was mesmerised, "Incredible, most of this is better than that junk I've found and Coco tuned up back at our place!".

Jill nodded, "You'll find the pretty much all of our facilities are of the highest quality, I train a lot here myself, I'm on a sports degree here". The family all looked baffled, Jill chuckled, "My bad, here at N Sanity Academy, you can decide what you want to specialise in, assuming you qualify for the course, obviously".

Aku Aku smiled softly, "Fascinating, what an interesting way to approach academics, more often than not, one is required to do mandatory subjects and have only a few other options".

Jill folded her arms and smiled back, "Freaky mask guy knows what he's on about, I like it. However for your first year, you're kinda required to take some subjects out of necessity. Things like the basics, sciences, mathematics and such".

Suddenly a fellow guide like Jill, walked out with a group of teens interested in the facility, she had a confident stride in her step, and was explaining the equipment much like Jill was about to. Her forest green sneakers stood out amongst the bleak grey walls and doors that littered the place, as well as her green and yellow minidress, adorned with a checkerboard pattern. Out stepped Ami Bandicoot, a friend of the main trio and Aku Aku, a trophy provider from back in the day when the Bandicoots and Cortex's men went to save the world from the sinister Nitros Oxide, in a grand racing tournament. Ami flicked part of her exceedingly lime green hair out of the way of her lightly toned face, "And that's all there is to know-".

Ami stopped short and saw the gang smiling at her, even Crunch, who had never met her before. Ami instantly had a toothy smile seeing her old friends after a few years, "What is up guys?!", she exclaimed walking over and playfully punching Crash in the arm, causing him to smile and rub the area struck. Ami then ruffled Coco's hair a bit, making it frizzly, however she chuckled as she knew that was an equivilent of a hug from Ami. "It's been forever!", her voice was slightly more mature than that of Coco's, slightly gritty and proud, but nonetheless genuinely happy.

"Ami!", Coco gleamed, "It's been too long, you're showing people around here?".

Ami nodded in confirmation, "You betcha! After the racing tournament I've been scurrying around tryna find a solid job, luckily they were hiring here, I'm one of the teaching assistants for the sports courses! A dream job!". Following her claim, she took a boxing stance and threw a few fake jabs toward her, then calmed down.

Jill spoke up, "True, the principal needed staffing and needed it in short notice, good thing he put those ads out when he did, physical and online alike. I'm only in second year because of my previous school when I transferred".

Coco sighed, "Well we don't have any educational background, so we'll have to start from the ground up".

Jill felt a tad guilty, "It is an odd system I'll admit, heck there's some here who're in their third and final year from the start, but you guys will blaze by this first year I bet".

Ami folded her arms and sighed, "It's a good thing I found this job, I can count myself lucky, I don't know what the other gals are up to now, we drifted apart after the big race...". Ami looked a bit down in the dumps after saying that and reminding herself of the good old days. However she soon perked up, "Still, on the bright side, I have a decent job helping others keep fit! I'll catch you guys around the campus, we can hang some time!". Ami waved the family goodbye, and they waved back.

Jill smiled, "I see you guys met Ami too, she's so easy to talk to, and has been such a great help around this part of the school".

Crunch had zoned out for a few moments, but soon was brought back to reality, "Erm", he began, "Where do we get to apply?".

Jill was taken aback, "Wh-You've already decided? We have loads of other places you can view".

Crunch shrugged, "What can I say? I got it easy, I found what I wanna do".

Jill was surprised, "Oh well, head to the main desk back in the lobby and Amanda should be there with some forms to sign if you want. Just be careful she's quite, ehh, cold at times".

Crunch nodded firmly, "Thanks Jill, I'll see you guys later!", Crunch darted in the opposite direction, his sneakers making a distinct squeaky noise as they scraped on the laminated wooden floor.

Once he rounded the corner, Jill turned back to the other three, "Well, anywhere you wanna head from here? We have art and history subjects in the east building. There's more technical stuff like computers, mechanics, sciences and mathematics in the west building. And if I recall... The south building is home to others like geography, and a few others, it's sort of a mishmash... I heard rumours that they'll have things sorted out soon, you noticed how the central building is huge, right? Apparently, they're planning on making many of the floors dedicated to some of the courses that need the attention or just their own areas".

Coco tilted her head slightly, "That's odd, almost like they've only just opened the place up... You sure do know a lot about this place though, Jill, you've been incredibly helpful", she said with a small smile.

Jill patted Coco on the back, "I got you, Co, now where you wanna head next?".

* * *

Since Crash hadn't anywhere he wanted to go in particular, Coco got what she wanted and got to visit the west building.

There were assorted labs and classes going on, as well as a few rooms where students were free to tinker with mechanics and even come up with their own projects. Already this seemed like the perfect place for Coco, Crash, on the other hand, was wondering what would suit him here...

Crash, Coco, Jill and Aku Aku all left one of the VR labs, a way for the students to visualise their ideas and even chill with games should they want to. Coco was practically buzzing, "That. Was. So. Awesome!". Crash smiled, glad that his little sister had found somewhere here that astounded her.

Jill chuckled, "I had a feeling you'd like that stuff, frankly I can't figure it out myself but you're one sharp cookie to just pick it up like that".

Coco rolled her eyes, "Stop, come on".

Jill shook her head, "I'm serious, Co, I think you'll do great here".

After viewing all the rooms, most of the buildings and given a map of the campus, Coco had applied to study robotics, mechanics and engineering. Crash, on the other hand, had one of the application forms in his hands, still uncertain on what to do.

Coco and Aku Aku were waiting outside the main entrance, quietly discussing the academy, the shore to their left, quietly crashing against the land. The sun was beginning to creep closer to the shoreline, causing the sky to become a mixture of orange and purple, indicating that it was time to head home, as night would soon approach. There were very few students about, just some small groups sat about the beach, Crash was stood by the sea skimming pebbles across the ocean, he was getting a good few skips on it.

Jill wondered out with some other girls, the kind that had a bit of an ego associated with them and saw them off, she passed by Coco and held her hand high, Coco awkwardly reciprocated the high five. Jill clicked her hands and pointed to Coco in approval, and went to wait by the newly constructed middle dock, for a boat home. On the way she stopped by Crash, "You ok man?". Crash glanced to her, then back at the ocean, he nodded slowly, and skimmed a pebble for about 7 skips. Jill hummed and clapped a couple of times, "Alright, see you around!".

Coco peered in the distance and saw Ami waiting for a boat, also at the middle dock, Ami and Coco's eyes met and Ami gave a small wave and smirk. Coco wasn't showing it, but she had minor anxiety throughout today, but just knowing her brothers would be there with her and she already had others she knew attending, made her relieved.

Crunch joined his family, raving about what the future would hold for him and his siblings. Soon after, the group headed to the caverns to travel back to the west side of the island, home. "Can you believe the stuff they have in there?!", Crunch exclaimed, hands clenched and pumped up. "I seriously can't wait to get into some serious trainin', and we can come out of that place with an actual education! Not just a group of bandicoot bad guy brawlers".

Coco nodded excitedly, "Yeah! Even better, once our uniforms get delivered we can attend as soon as possible. I can't wait to sink my teeth into some schematics and share ideas with other tech-lovers. Just think of all the benefits we could give the world".

Aku Aku seemed pleased that the children had a goal in their lives now, as opposed to just beating Cortex and his plots everyday. He turned around to Crash, at the back of the pack, "Crash? Do you seek anything at the academy?".

Crash had his application form in his back pocket, he shrugged, he had never thought that far ahead, ever. He was just around for the ride of life, all he knew was lounging, relaxing, and facing danger whenever the world needed his help. The mere idea of settling down in a building of education and learning? Not something he had fully wrapped his head around at the moment, it didn't seem right.

* * *

Back home, Aku Aku was sat with Crunch, granted by sat we mean propped up against the back of their couch. He couldn't help but worry what his evil twin, Uka Uka, and his assorted goons were up to. They hadn't seemed to strike today, in fact they could go quiet for a week and then suddenly try something, they were purely unpredictable.

Crash sat outside on the porch of the hut, he had his legs resting on an old wooden crate, a blank one, so nothing special. The sun was setting, and just glancing at the shoreline made Crash's eyes flinch, but it was also a soft reminder of how lovely his home was. He had protected it so many times, and he happily would any other time, the only thing on his mind right now, were these subtle adjustments to the island. Sure they were convenient, but it was just the sort of sudden change that didn't sit well with him on the inside. He saw the small, quick-fix pen they had made for the chickens just by the stone wall, the little birds clucking and pecking about the ground, it gave Crash a small, soft smile.

Crunch walked out to the front door and almost tripped over Crash, "Woah, sorry there bro", Crunch apologised, "Just gonna check on the lil' guys before I hit the hay". Crunch walked over to the tiny poultry and was even talking to them like they could understand him. This just added to Crash's sense of change and why he felt this was perfect. Everything right now was perfectly fine.

Inside the garage, Coco sat typing on her laptop, she had been documenting her progress of her work on her laptop, instead of her old diary she used to write in. She switched to technology quickly after her brothers stole her diary and read the whole thing aloud, at the dinner table, Coco couldn't live that down. Time was growing short however, and it was about time that she should head to bed. Once she finished typing up the notes she made, and saving with a quick CTRL+S press, she patted the tarp covering her latest project. Since the uniforms wouldn't be here for a few days at most, she figured she could tune up her work and see if it could enter testing soon.

Soon all three bandicoots were walking down the hall that held all of their bedroom doors, each entering their own and saying goodnight to each other. In a matter of seconds, the family were all asleep.

Aku Aku glanced outside through the window right by the main door, he had an unsettled feeling inside him, like something could go wrong at this very moment. However, nothing happened for a good ten minutes, and as a result, he decided to put his concerns aside, and head to sleep himself.

It had been about an hour or so since our heroes began to slumber, but suddenly the ground began to shake slightly.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Another unneeded author's note, but I had to clarify something quick, upon reading the age rating requirements and such again, I have had to up this to a T. This is due to this chapter and upcoming ones having fighting scenes, and I want to play it safe should anyone sustain injuries. I want to encaspulate how dangerous their world can be, and don't want to risk angering anyone due to an incorrect rating and risking thie getting taken down. There won't be much else that will be that serious or adult though. Happy Reading.**

* * *

The sea looked remarkable to sail across, the rays of the sun shimmering on the bouncing waves that coated the area. The relatively large wooden vessel that was coursing across the endless marine was set to arrive in Middle Island shortly. The ship was designed like those that assisted Crash during his adventure to the Iceberg Lab a couple of years ago, a lean ship that was overall larger, but also curved upward toward the bow of the ship. There was a small wooden structure where the bridge was, the captain making his last trip of the day before tomorrow, where it would start all over again. Leaning over the starboard banister of this transport was Ami, her left arm laying over the support, and her right hand supporting her head.

She rode the whole way back in deep thought, mainly about seeing her old friends again, she was so glad that Crash and Coco were safe and sound under Aku Aku's protection. The new guy to her seemed nice enough, however all this did was bring on thoughts of her old friends from her childhood... Just before she could reminisce, the boat came to a complete stop, Ami walked off and to the newly made port on Middle Island, just by the Lost City ruins. However, the ruins were now mostly safe since Crash had trekked through there, way back, mostly surrounded by barricades, but not intrusive to the outside path around said island.

Ami felt the temperature dip down slightly, a sign she should hurry to her residence, her home just a few paths away in the woods to her right. Jill passed by, jogging and saying her goodbyes to her fellow athlete, Ami returned the compliment and smiled faintly, she too ought to get back before it got too dark. Ami walked briskly back to her home, to do so, she chose to make a sharp right. Behind her was a lengthy upstream that lead up to some sort of cave-like ruin, which had a waterfall spewing out of it. This was not Ami's goal, however, and she remained on task, the newly formed woodland area resided just past the temple ruins around the corner that Ami would soon reach.

After rounding the almost ninety-degree turn, to her left sat the temple ruins, decrepit and still echoing some high-pitched squeaks inside from the bat families hosted within. Ami had only heard of the story that took place in there from Aku Aku, making her feel somewhat proud of her heroic pal. These proud emotions fell short due to Ami being in only her traditional minidress, and the cooler air now striking her body, she felt a slight shiver. "Let's focus on one thing at a time", she told herself, with a spring in her step, she too began to jog past the ruins, and a fair few feet away was her goal.

Ami had entered the silent woods, the cool air that was picking up on the outside now sounded distant but still was whistling. There was almost no other wildlife out and about at this time, the only audible noise from any sort of creature was the sound of some monkeys in the far distance, but even then, they weren't particularly chatty. After a few minutes, Ami reached a hut of her own, similar in scale to our main protagonists' place. It was a rounded and cozy structure, with a flat, cuboid roof, the square windows that were either side of the main door were painted a lime green, as was the roof, even the front door. Ami had a bit of a colour theme rocking here, she grabbed the knob of the main door and pried it open with a shrieking creek.

Her main room was a slightly different affair to that of the others on N Sanity Island. Whereas Crunch had his gym and fitness equipment stored in his room and some of it in their garage, Ami had it strewn about the place. Fitness mats, dumbbells, seated arm machines and leg curl machines also took up a fair bit of space. The walls were, surprisingly, not lime green, but a calmer cream, you would not know due to all the motivational posters plastered over every possible wall space. Ami sighed peacefully, she was home, and she had a good hour or so until she'd head to bed, she walked toward her kitchen, ready for a quiet night and a soft sleep.

* * *

As the heroes got their rest, the forest grew quiet, there was pretty much no chirping anymore from the local birds, and the chilled breeze had died down. Inside Crunch's room, he lay slumbering softly, and slightly snoring. Suddenly the room shook slightly, Crunch grumbled and turned onto his side trying to stay asleep. He was amidst a dream where he was being revelled by hundreds of fans, "Sure, one more autograph" is all he muttered before snoring once more.

Across the hall, in his room, Crash was lifted by the force of the shaking, and landed back down on his face, still asleep. Then another force struck, Crash unintentionally did a front flip, his trademark jump, but landed yet again on his noggin. He lay at an awkward angle, the top of his head being the only thing on the mattress, and the back of his body was propped up against the wall.

When the shock got bigger, Coco, in her room, woke up, her academy poster hung on her wall, now yanked out of said wall and fell onto her bed softly. She rubbed her eyes, groggy and uncoordinated, it had only been about an hour since she fell asleep. She wandered to her window, sitting on the side of the hut, and then her eyes widened with realisation.

Coco kicked open both Crash and Crunch's doors and screamed for them to get up, she ran back and forth to both of her siblings, whacking them on the face with her pillow. Nothing. They really were sound asleep, Coco darted to the kitchen, grabbed two glasses of water and rushed back, splashing both of her brothers with a cold hard wake up call. Crash panicked and flailed about slightly, probably thinking he had stumbled into a pool, and he could not swim to save his life. Crunch shot up and was admittedly agitated, but that went away when he saw Coco donning a worried expression, causing Crunch to enter big brother protective mode and wonder what was going on.

Aku Aku floated in, "Children!" he began, grave shock in his voice, "I fear we're in danger! I knew that I had a feeling this would happen!".

Crunch narrowed his eyes, understanding what his guardian was hinting at, he stretched his arms and legs slightly and briskly put on his camo pants and walked down the hall, toward the front door. Crunch did not turn around or hesitate in his path, he knew what was about to happen. Crash peered around the corner of his door frame, his facial fur slightly soggy, and looking dazed from the startling alarm if you will. Both Coco and Aku Aku stared at him with an expression suggesting to get a move on, to which Crash frowned and nodded, following where Crunch ran off to.

Coco just sighed, and looked up at her protector, "Here we go again", she moaned, jogging toward the garage instead of the front door. Aku Aku, feeling the sense of doom growing, decided to let her be and rush outside. Once he came through the red wooden hole where the door was ajar, he levitated next to Crash and Crunch. Both brothers with stern looks on their faces, looking dead ahead.

The forest was quite dark, so it was hard to see well, but there was no mistaking the silhouettes walking toward them. On the far left was Tiny Tiger, laughing in a dopey manner to himself and looking at Crunch square in the eyes as he paced slowly forward. Crunch narrowed his eyes back at his rival, only to see that next to the brawling bag of muscle that was Tiny, was another enemy, Pinstripe Potoroo.

Pinstripe had his usual tommy gun in his arms, he was also grinning, but was dead silent, his slicked black hair making a vivid reflection of what little light was about. He lifted his gun into the air and fired a few rounds, the sheer sound of the bullets cracking into the sky sent all manner of wildlife into a panic. Birds flew away into the distance, monkeys nearby fell out of trees and began to screech, running about on the beach.

* * *

Inside the hut, Coco jumped at the sound of the bullets being fired, "Pinstripe..." she said in a slightly shaky voice, then placing a screwdriver in between her teeth by the handle as she tinkered with a machine on her workbench. Her pace was accelerated but she was just as wary to be cautious with her project, "Just a few more adjustments and you'll be ready to go into testing, here's hoping I didn't mess the most vital part up".

* * *

Tiny and Pinstripe were only the beginning of it, toward the middle of the line of villainous thugs was the unhinged kangaroo, Ripper Roo, who had on his head an iconic TNT crate, red and with yellow stripes top and bottom around it. Ripper Roo was muttering and laughing to himself, he launched the box, and it landed on the floor in front of Crash and Crunch. It began to beep, 3, 2, 1- as it was about to detonate Crunch booted it into the air and it made a beautiful, yet dangerous orange explosion against the night sky. For a split second, the woods were lit up in a gorgeous fashion.

Crunch held his fists up, "Just you three? Pity...".

"Oh no, there's more" a more feminine, nasally voice claimed, and into view walked a small, pale girl, also with an N on her head. But this one was red and lower case. Nina Cortex, Dr. Neo Cortex's niece, ex-student at the Academy of Evil, was a snarky and deviously smart girl rivalling Coco. She was currently residing with her uncle due to losing her place at her previous school, as much as she missed it, her uncle knew she was too smart for any school. The sinister 'Cortex' gene was residing within her, and Neo Cortex knew this. Her hips were relaxed as she stood before the two bandicoots, adjusting her metal hands slightly.

Nina smirked, her buck teeth slightly exposed, "So glad you're having fun seeing these guys, but I'm afraid I have to step in and take the limelight. My dear uncle thought it'd be best to send me in as a warning. You rats have messed with our plans long enough, and it's only gonna get worse as we get stronger". She had her hands on her hips in a cocky manner, seeming like she was showing off, despite wearing her usual attire of a black shirt, red tie and a purple plaid skirt...

Crash and Crunch looked at each other, then back at the tiny threat on the other side, they were a fair few feet away from Nina and her goons beside her, they began to laugh slightly. Like anyone so scrawny could be a threat without her muscle, right?

Nina frowned, she raised her right hand and snapped her fingers, a command of sorts. Once she did this, Tiny nodded, grinning, and began to gallop over to the rodents for a quick kill. Tiny jumped toward Crash and snarled viciously, claws out and blade sharp. Crash prepared to spin in defence, winding himself up by slightly twirling his body, but suddenly a loud screeching sound was heard.

Crunch stepped in the way, placing his right arm in front, he took the swipe from Tiny for Crash, leaving multiple scuff marks on the metal plating. Tiny looked shocked, "You get in way of Tiny's prey?!" he bellowed, taking a fighting stance.

Crunch did the same, and simply nodded, "I know how to whoop your butt in just a few moments, Tiny", Tiny shrieked a war cry and went to tackle the red, muscular bandicoot, who fought back just as hard trying to knock Tiny out of commission. The two tanky warriors spent the next few seconds trying to land blows, more often than not, they were just trading punches.

Nina sighed, just as she reached for the red button on her handheld device in her palm, Pinstripe stepped forward, "Don't worry, Nina, I gots this". He cocked his gun and had a large grin plastered on his face, Crash turned and saw this, looking helpless. "Night night, rat", Pinstripe state, pulling the trigger and sending a plethora of bullets at Crash. After a few seconds he stopped, the bullet casings hit the floor, making a pinging noise as they hit the ground.

Pinstripe began to laugh but soon stopped, Crash had some sort of mask on. Aku Aku placed himself on Crash's face and made him invincible for the brief period. Pinstripe dropped his gun and stood mouth ajar in pure disbelief, "Of all the-". Ripper Roo began to laugh uncontrollably in the high-pitched manner he always did, Pinstripe glanced to his left at his maniacal teammate and began to curse under his breath.

Crash seemed thankful to Aku Aku, who was slightly exhausted and warned him he needed time in order to cause another invincible state. It took a lot out of him.

Suddenly, a whirring wheezing sound was heard through the trees, trees that Crunch had just pushed Tiny into. Tiny clenched his fists and began to growl louder, as he was getting nowhere, and patience wasn't his strong suit. Tiny turned, due to hearing another sound behind him, his ears dropped in fear, and he dove out of the way. A large ball of fire shot through the wood on the trees, setting them ablaze and turning them to ash. Dingodile stepped slowly into the scene, "Sorry mates", he began, "But ol' Bess 'ere needed a small tune up before our siege", he claimed, patting the huge tank on his back. The tanker strapped to his back was particularly large, donning a red and yellow checkerboard pattern around the top and bottom, Dingodile raised up his flamethrower and couldn't help but grin.

Tiny smirked back, and went back to trying to slash Crunch, again, and again, and again. Crunch parried many of the strikes and kept on the defence. He had to find an opening to his evil counterpart, or this could never end. Tiny may have been dumb, but he certainly wasn't weak in terms of raw power and stamina.

Dingodile twisted the nozzle of his trusty flamethrower, setting it to spew out a stream of flame. He began to send a load Crunch's way, it was about chest level, Crunch tried to sidestep to the left. However, the sudden obstacle caught him off guard, causing Crunch to misstep and Tiny got a slash in on Crunch's left eye. Fortunately, it was only one claw, and there was no major wound. Crunch stumbled back, his eye now scarred with a pink cut, he tightened his fists and glared right at his enemy. Crunch began to fight back more, trying to strike Tiny out with sheer punches, Dingodile smirked and prepared another barrage of napalm. But something happened, the flamethrower, didn't throw any flames out at all... He glanced down at the nozzle and saw that it had been clogged in a very odd fashion by a few wumpa fruits. "What in the-" Dingodile said, baffled, until he glanced up and saw that behind the two brawling giants, was Crash, waving with his fruit bazooka he had earned back in the Time Twister. He had shot a few loads into the flamethrower, and wumpas were sturdy little things. Dingodile gulped, turning his head to see his tank on his back extruding and about to explode, and that it did. Leaving the poor hybrid covered in soot, and pain, he fell over coughing, down for the count.

Nina pinched her forehead at all of this going on and groaned, "Fine, at least uncle sent ME for a reason!". As soon as she made this claim, she launched her right hand, being that it was actually just a gauntlet that had a huge length of metal wiring between the wrist and her arm. She grasped a tree tightly and began to zip up to where her hand landed, now at a vantage point. She had free reign to survey the fight and attack from an easy position.

Pinstripe and Ripper Roo had calmed themselves, and now that Crash wasn't invulnerable, they had a shot at him. Pinstripe nodded his head in Crash's direction, as if saying to nab him, and Ripper Roo happily accepted, bouncing over to the heroic marsupial. Pinstripe began to reload his tommy gun, he hadn't many rounds left, "Let's see you tank this one, rat" he growled slowly.

Pinstripe heard many trotting footsteps getting louder and louder, Crunch came into view, "What!" Pinstripe hollered. The potoroo glanced to his right, Crunch had knocked Tiny out cold, and the tiger was left lying near Dingodile. Crunch snatched the gun and bent its nozzle rendering it ineffective. Pinstripe stood shaking, Crunch threw the gun behind him toward Crash, who spun and pinged the gun back to its owner, whacking Pinstripe in the face, three down.

Crash and Crunch couldn't celebrate quickly though, as they heard the varied pitch of Ripper Roo's maniacal laughter, while they took care of Pinstripe, Roo had laid a load of nitro crates about the place. These green glowing boxes were prone to exploding at the slightest touch, by far more deadly than their TNT brethren. Just one slip, and Crash would be playing that didgeridoo to the heavens in no time.

Ripper Roo held his foot over one nitro, wiggling his toes, like it was some sick game to him. Crash looked distressed, whereas Crunch broke a sweat, trying to keep the tough guy act. Just as Roo stamped on the neon green explosive, a chain reaction set off, the clashing sound of multiple detonations echoing about the woods.

Roo wasn't harmed by this, honestly, he was used to it, but as the fog cleared something was surrounding the meddling mammals. It was a bubble shield, cyan blue and pulsating as it took many blows. Both Crash and Crunch were confused and grateful at the sudden deployment, and it seemed it was Coco who saved them as she was crouching in front of them.

Crunch patted her on the back, "Way to go, Coco! How did you do that? Some kinda gadget you made?", but he noticed how rock solid her back felt, that's not normal at all. He took a step back, as did Crash as a mechanical looking Coco turned to them. The guys were speechless, what was going on here?

Nina, still perched in the trees, couldn't even begin to grasp what she was seeing, her rival had outdone her again... Acting like she was flawless and without any faults, surpassing Nina in engineering among other things. Where does she get the nerve... Nina felt like she'd show her what a waste of scrap that toy was.

Coco, stood in the doorway of their home, was panting and had a few oil smudges on her clothes and face, she held the doorframe trying to catch her breath. "Gentlemen", she began, trying to gasp for air between each word, "I... present to you... my latest project! Still in alpha, meet M3CA-CC0, right now it's mostly an A.I. Fitted with a fully functioning real time processor, able to adapt to combat situations! You know all those machines we kept busting? I managed to go on some walks from time to time and salvage parts to build her".

Aku Aku was ecstatic, "Well done, Coco! You've outdone yourself yet again! What fortunate timing!".

Coco chuckled, "Been in the works for almost a year, but finally got her out for testing, figured this would be perfect. Still worried I rushed the installation of the A.I. though, it came from one of Cortex's machines after all, so I had to tweak it".

The shield around the brothers was now void, and Mecha-Coco was truly a marvel of engineering, she looked nearly identical to her creator. The main difference being her eyes were almost digitally holographic, like 16-bit blue eyes. Her body had a metallic sheen from head to toe, with a fair few nuts and bolts keeping it together, namely the hair and limbs. Her 'clothes' were the same, mainly just a paint job Coco had done on the body. Mecha-Coco threw her hand forward in what seemed like a split second, "Greetings brothers! I am M3CA-CC0, but you can just call me Mecha-Coco!" she said with a wide smile, her voice just sounding like a digitised Coco.

Crunch hesitated to shake hands with this machine, mostly due to its sudden movements, but he did so slowly, "Pleasure to meet ya...", he said. He then turned to Coco, "So what exactly can it do as well as save our hides?". Coco smirked, confusing the muscle-head, but his answer was shown to him, as a metallic hand had just missed Crunch, he forgot about Nina, he was side-tracked with the other goons.

Nina darted toward the bandicoots, coming for a strike, she was currently too peeved to think logically. Mecha-Coco's eyes suddenly turned red, suddenly she rotated her whole body and she grabbed the gothic girl by the chest. Nina was suspended in the robot's grip, shocked at the reaction time it possessed. Mecha-Coco then pulled her right arm back with Nina, and lobbed her away, toward her felled goons. The evil niece skidded across the grass and hit a tree stump, Nina sat up rubbing the back of her head, trying to think of the best way to fight this new threat, but her head was becoming clouded by her anger.

"Woah...", Crunch hummed, Crash began to prod at her arms, trying to comprehend her strength. Crunch turned to Coco, behind them, Crash held his hand out to greet his new pal. Although, Mecha-Coco was so giddy to begin learning her new family she got careless with her grip, absolutely crushing Crash's left hand. It looked relatively disfigured when he pulled out of the iron grip.

"Yep", Coco gloated, "I know it's a bit selfish of me to model her after myself, but I dunno, just felt right. Yet to iron out a few things but some regular tuning and she'll be fit for service against these clowns. May be able to push her into beta!".

Nina snapped her fingers, the others began to get up, albeit slowly, "Get your butts movin'!" she bellowed, "We want those rabid rodents outta here for good!".

All of the villains were boosted by Nina's morale speech, Nina then pulled out the device she had been keeping hidden. A small silver remote with a singular, maroon button, with a single click, the ground began to shake again. The bandicoots, including Mecha, all began to look about frantically. Suddenly, a large drill came between the heroes and villains, it kept rising, sending massive chunks of dirt flying everywhere, most of which got flung into the Bandicoot's home. The family watched as a pretty big head surfaced underneath the whirring drill, to put it simply, the drill was the top of the skull of this machine. The head was designed in the style of what seemed to be a crude construction of a mole. Its body not too far from the Mecha-Bandicoot's design, which still laid in the caverns beneath the island. However, the paint job was a mixture of yellow and brown tattered stripes assorted along the entire thing. A rustic whizzing drill on both hands of the mech, shaking small amounts of earth onto the surface. It had many exhaust pipes coming out of its back, about three on each side going down vertically. The black putrid smoke it extruded was nothing short of sickening to the Bandicoots, who had to comprehend this new adversary before them.

Aku Aku tried to examine the inside, as the eye holes were transparent, Cortex and N Gin were nowhere to be seen. "What is this?", he mumbled to himself.

Nina cackled, "This is the Tunnel Tyrant, uncle's design is impressive, but we lacked a work force after the lab assistants all left... So, I pitched in and supplied in my own way". As Nina claimed this, it could be seen what was operating the killing machine, a pack of yappy rodents appeared to be operating the many ligaments inside. They had tanned fur, various colours in their medium length hair, and spiked bracelets on their wrists. Like Nina, they had purple plaid skirts on and black uniforms too.

Coco widened her eyes, "The Brat Girls? Seriously Nina? After all that they put you through before?".

Nina smirked, "Without my guidance, their circle was crumbling, they begged me for forgiveness, so they are our lackeys. In exchange for their work, they get their leader back, a roof over their heads, and pay!".

"Allow me to demonstrate", Nina simply pointed forward, the machine kicked into gear, it put its right foot forward and swiped its right-hand drill across the grass, causing a large brown, dirt ridden trench. Obviously, our heroes had no trouble avoiding this, Mecha-Coco began to scan the machine, from her point of view, everything was a light shade of blue, and many windows popped up showing possible weak points in the legs, shoulders and ankles. A progress bar then surfaced, slowly ticking up to 100%, but it was going at a crawl due to Mecha having to prioritise staying in one piece.

"Detecting multiple weak points on the target", Mecha said aloud, side stepping a tad, "Calculating best course of action".

Crunch began to wonder what to do, once this behemoth was down, they had to deal with the mooks behind it. "We don't have time to calculate! We gotta strike now!" He peered at the trench, he dove and slammed his metal gauntlet into the ground, which made rocks spike up dramatically. He then grabbed one of the slabs, it was twice his size, he held it like a baseball bat and wound up for a swing. He felt a tug on the other end behind him, and Crash had hopped onto the rock, perched, the two brothers nodded in unison.

The Tyrant wound up its own left swing, as it came darting toward the Bandicoots, Crunch shrieked and swung the huge rock toward his enemy's strike. Coco gasped as Crash almost got crushed between the two hulking objects, but instead he jumped up onto the robot's left shoulder. As the Tyrant pulled back, Crash had to keep balanced, he was now a fair few feet high. The head of the Tryant slowly turned to face Crash, two Brat Girls sat with unimpressed expressions on their faces, Crash waved in response. He spun for an extended time into the head, it began to twirl and spin rapidly, causing shrieking inside. The Tyrant was off balance and flailing about in a panic.

Crash dove off of the robot, and landed with a roll, he was ok minus a bit of head rush from the speed. Crunch cheered, Coco clapped, and Mecha flashed a blue tick in her visor, a sign of approval. Nina growled, "You were trained for this! Focus!".

The Brat Girls regained control of the arms and went for an impromptu swipe, but it was halted early, the head slowly stopped spinning, and the operators sat speechless. Singlehandedly, Mecha-Coco had prevented the attack, she held onto the tip of the drill, slightly shaking as it was taking a lot of energy to halt the force of the Tyrant. Then, in one swift motion, she lifted the Tyrant off of the ground, and spun it around her counter-clockwise, then, when the ocean in the distance was in front of her, let go. In a matter of seconds, the death machine was careening toward the spike totem poles at the other end of the valley. The Brat Girls' screams dampened as they crashed into the sea, most of the mech submerged under the blue abyss. In a panic, the squad inside crawled out and swam to shore, they weren't happy.

Everyone, heroes and villains, stood with their mouth agape. That really just happened, Coco however became ecstatic, "I can't believe that worked!". Crash gulped, all Crunch could do was point in disbelief and look to his younger brother for any input. Aku Aku beamed, proud was an understatement.

Nina stood pondering, her opposition looked very confident, she smirked, "I see, you can't fight us on your own merits, so you had to make something to replace you in the field". Nina knew the irony in her statement, but wasn't thinking straight, she was seething internally right now. Coco looked to take a slight hit from that, emotionally. Nina turned around, "Fine, cower behind a bucket of bolts like that, we'll be back sooner than you think". With that, Nina snapped her fingers, and everyone got up, the Brat Girls ran over soaking wet, all of the mooks dazed and wounded, minus Ripper Roo. Though some of her underlings wanted to stay and scrap, Nina gave them all a sharp intense stare, claiming she had spoken. The thugs dashed away into the shadows, the rustling of them pushing past plants and shrubbery began to get very distant, they were gone.

Mecha-Coco began to scan the area, her scan lines hitting the many trees and after a few moments, she turned and gave a thumbs up. The family sighed with relief, "A late night assault" Aku Aku moaned, "They have sunk to yet another low... I couldn't help but notice a distinct lack of Cortex and Uka Uka".

Mecha turned around, "Cor-tex? Uka Uka? Unable to build a profile from names".

Coco went behind Mecha and held her shoulders, "Don't worry, Mecha, let's just head inside for the night, you're a lifesaver!".

Crunch chuckled, "Didn't need those weak points seeing to, just needed to act on the spot!".

* * *

The pack went inside, following Coco and her robotic counterpart. Upon entering the living room, Mecha began to ask more questions, "What should we do now, Mistress?".

Coco winced slightly, coming to a halt, "Just Coco is fine, Mecha, we need to sleep... We don't normally venture out at night. Let's get you to sleep and back up the combat data". Mecha saluted in a soldier like manner, her mouth scrunched up. Coco smiled; a sense of humour was always welcome in this household.

Coco and Mecha went to their left where the hall to the bedrooms and garage was, and they soon disappeared behind the door to the garage, the door slowly squeaking shut. Crunch raised an eyebrow, "Can't believe she made that thing, it's beyond cool". He turned and saw mud covering the windows, a result of the earlier clash, Crunch sighed, "We can tend to that tomorrow, right now, I'm exhausted, I'm off to bed".

Crunch bid Crash and Aku Aku goodnight, again, and walked quickly toward to his room, the land of dreams not far from his reach. He stopped outside the door to their garage and listened in.

Inside the room, Coco was organising her tools, Mecha was observing her surroundings. "This is where I reside?", she asked with curiosity.

Coco nodded, "Yup, but don't worry, Crash, Crunch and I are just down the hall to the left", she closed one of her toolboxes and rotated on her chair to her creation.

Mecha turned to Coco, "Crash, Crunch".

Coco smirked, "Our big brothers".

Mecha paused, she glanced away to the main garage shutter door, "Big, brothers? Define", she commanded.

Coco hummed, "Well, they're there for us whenever we need them. If we're in danger, if we're in a snag, even if it's something trivial... I can count on Crash and Crunch to help me out with anything, they'll never let me down". Crunch unconditionally smiled softly and leaned slightly against the door with his arms folded.

Mecha responded, "I see, they are our superiors?".

Coco peered up in thought, "I suppose if that makes it easier to process, yes. Anyhow, I need to sleep, you did great, Mecha, I am proud of what you've become".

Mecha nodded slowly, trying to grasp human body language and expressions, "But, Mistre-", Coco glared at Mecha, "Correction, Coco, designed, constructed, fused and made me".

Coco hopped off of her chair, her hands in her pockets, "I suppose so, thank you for the compliment". Crunch laughed quietly, and went to his room, glad that he could be a symbol of hope for his little sister. He sat on his mattress and felt his small scar he caught from Tiny, he winced in pain as it stung quite bad. He counted himself lucky his vision wasn't impaired at all from it.

Meanwhile, in the middle of the front room, Crash and Aku stood quietly, pondering the events that had transpired tonight. Crash was not one to normally trust machinery, to be honest, he was slightly unsettled by the idea. This coupled with the academy viewing earlier in the day had caused a bit of anxiety in Crash's gut, which he held softly.

Aku Aku suddenly spoke up, "Well, we fought hard and came out on top again, great work, Crash, I'll see you in the morning". Crash softly waved as Aku left to catch up with his own sleep. All of these unnerving feelings swarmed Crash's mind, and it was beginning to get irritating, but then his eyes began to slowly close. He was shattered, he needed rest, in no time we jogged back to his bed and collapsed, instantly returning to slumber.

Coco hooked up a spare laptop of hers to Mecha, she used this for tuning the A.I. of Mecha when in the last few phases of production. "Alright, now you'll enter a shutdown procedure in a few moments, then you'll be booted up at 8am sharp". Coco headed to the door to leave, she turned her head to her project, she was buzzing at the fact it was functional, and already wanting to learn so much about the world. "Goodnight, Mecha", Coco softly whispered as she flicked the light off, Mecha watched Coco leave, she then looked ahead, and in a few seconds, powered down.

The forest returned to its desolate and peaceful self, everything seemed to look up from here.


	4. Chapter 4

The sun slowly crawled up upon the horizon, fending off the ominous and impending darkness that nightfall brought. The rather large Tyrant mech lay in the sea, motionless as the only sound that surrounded it was the waves coursing over it. As the glass eyes of the robot reflected the upcoming sunlight, a crab scurried across the head of the contraption. As it pattered along the still clean metal, a pelican landed next to the crab, scaring it off. The pelican lifted it's right-wing and fiddled with one of it's feathers before dashing off into the air.

The N Sanity Academy appeared to be opening its doors, with a few early bird students wandering about and enjoying the seafront atmosphere. One such individual was Ami, who had to be in earlier than most to make sure all equipment was maintained and operational. There was a cliff that sat up high to the left of the academy entrance, atop this large rock formation sat a flat grass plane. A small red chicken coop was in the right corner, with plenty of small, white rounded chickens pecked at the ground, waddling around the farm. A large grey and rustic silo on the opposite side sat on a small wooden boxed frame, lastly, there was a red, wooden cabin with a rocking chair sat on the front porch, the buildings were all quite angular and distinct. On the far end of the farm sat a group of Wumpa Trees, a delicacy for farmers and Crash alike. The cabin's door flung open, his large clumsy brown boots crunching on the grass, he pulled his suspenders slightly and let go, causing a thwack sound. The navy-blue suspenders pinged onto his white button up shirt as he had a piece of wheat hang from his beak, slightly adjusting his straw hat, Farmer Ernest, a rather open Emu who knew Crash and his family personally, began to start his day.

He walked over to the Wumpa Trees, with a few baskets in hand and slowly plucked them of their supply, it was a rather big harvest today. Ernest heard some chatter lower in the valley, he quickly wandered over to the small brown fence that surrounded his land. He leaned his dark blue feathered arms on the support to see various teenage mammals mingling about. "Gee...", Ernest began, "That academy seems a good idea, but why did they choose here of all places?", his voice being very soft and almost dopey, he turned around, "Sure is getting noisy around here now". Ernest suddenly stumbled and fell to his knees, he peered behind him to see what caused his trip, a pink wrench, planted into the ground. Ernest uprooted the tool, "How did I not see this yesterday?", he asked himself, but he had no answer, he must've been too in tune with his schedule. As he held the wrench, he saw a few scuff marks and some flower stickers on it, on the other side there was a small label, 'Property of Coco Bandicoot'. Ernest chuckled, he placed the wrench back in his home, as he wasn't much of a gearhead anyway, and was sure to return it to her when he could.

* * *

Her legs bounced up and down as she sat planted on a chair, not out of joy, out of nervousness, she sat opposite her uncle with a slightly peeved expression. Nina was a tad upset as she had been lectured by her uncle last night and this morning about the catastrophe that was their assault. The two were currently in Cortex's main room for their villainous meetings, and he was not happy. "The sheer recklessness you took, Nina, I mean what were you doing?!", Cortex bellowed, the acoustics of the room making his voice louder than it really was. Nina looked away, not engaging eye contact, and shrugged dismissively, Cortex clenched his teeth "You have no respect for the Cortex lineage or villainy, I should have never retrieved you from that accursed academy...".

Nina had no response, Cortex simply huffed, "I'll be having words with the others, you all did horrifically in that examination. It's becoming clear to me that I was too confident in your potential. Go to your room, I'll have a word with you later on. In my entire scientific history, I have never been more disappointed in a result, and I created Crash for goodness sake...". Nina slumped off of her chair, not too differently than a child who had just been told off in public, and sluggishly left the room.

Uka Uka flew up next to Cortex, "Pathetic, and here I thought you were the biggest loser in your family, Cortex... You seem to get more disappointing further down the bloodline".

Cortex pinched his eyes, "Tell me about it-wha-hey!".

Uka Uka shook his head, "Which reminds me, I don't think I've ever asked about that foolish girl's parents". Cortex's demeanour changed almost instantly, looking a tad melancholy, but also quite peeved. "Seems a bit weird that her uncle watches over her more than say, her mother. Did she end up in an accident or something?". Cortex glanced up at his boss, who was laughing a bit at the image he made in his head. "What?", the evil mask quizzed, Cortex didn't seem up for discussing it at this point, to which the two stayed silent. They awaited their next chat with another underling of theirs, Tiny.

Nina shut the door and was greeted to a typical hallway in the castle, purple bricks, torches lit around the place and large yellow N banners hanging everywhere. Her uncle called it old school, she just felt it was dated in this age... She power walked up some stairs to her left and passed by Tiny, who was pressing a small bump on his head he had achieved last night. As Nina barged past him, he let out an intimidating growl, but it did not phase the little goth girl, which actually made Tiny unsettled, although now he had to deal with a mouthful from his creator, Tiny went down to the meeting room.

Nina climbed up the spiralling steps, and soon came to one of the highest floors of the castle, to her left lay a small recreation room, because in Cortex's words, "Why not have a little fun when trying to rule the world?". She could hear what was a few Brat Girls gossiping, already moaning about last night's failure. Down to the right was Cortex and N Brio's old lab which wasn't often used anymore, and past that was a black door. Nina briskly walked to her bedroom door, and pried it open, she turned and slammed it with some force. Why did that have to happen last night? For Coco to outshine her yet again with her fancy creations, her high and mighty attitude... And her freedom.

Nina turned around to her room, mostly black floorboards and a gothic purple scattered the walls, she sat on her bed and folded her arms. There were four candle sticks on each of the poles that held her bedframe together, each burning at relatively the same rate. Nina crawled to the end of her bed and crossed her legs like a schoolchild, watching the flame burn ever so slowly. In what seemed like an instant, Nina found herself within a flashback.

* * *

 _Nina sat, seven years old, she looked relatively similar to now, just smaller and without any makeup. She sat in what seemed to be black shorts and a red hoodie over her torso, it was slightly bigger than her so her hands wouldn't even poke out of the sleeves. She sat on a tiny single bed, watching a candle burn, the flame giving her a soothing feeling inside, like right now, she was safe. Outside her room, she could faintly hear two people shouting at each other at the top of their lungs, their bellows echoed throughout the hall. Nina glanced at her door, appearing upset, but decided to just focus on the ember in front of her, soft and warm feelings passed through her. "I don't know why, but I could just get lost in flames forever. They're so small, yet so out there and noticeable..."._

 _Nina could hear footsteps approaching her door, she looked on in fear as the doorknob began to turn, an angry voice behind the door shouting Nina's name._

* * *

Nina quickly pulled herself out with her own free will. Not wishing to resurface past memories when she had a present matter to handle. She turned left to her window, outside was looking quite lush today, it was a shame that she had caused her own isolation.

Or did she? She did try her best last night to end those rodents, sure she didn't get far, but what position was her uncle in to judge her for her failures? He was on record for even MORE losses than herself, the many years that Crash had foiled his schemes was a gargantuan amount. Nina leaned against her windowsill and clenched her metallic fists rather tightly. She had many things coursing her brain right now, one of which was what was her filthy rat of a rival doing right now?

* * *

Through the woodland entrance, the Bandicoot's hut sat, still muddy from last night's scuffle. No one seemed to be up and about at this time, however, the time was 8:02am. The main room was quiet, no noise from the fireplace, it was entirely silent throughout the cosy house. The garage, where Mecha was staying, seemed to be empty of life too, the laptop hooked up to her now having cables swinging slowly off the edge of the table. Everything else remained still, motionless, untouched. Crunch lay in his bed, duvet over him as his head just poked out, he grumbled and hummed in his slumber. "Crunch", a voice spoke up, beside him. Crunch did not hear this and turned away from the voice, facing his wall, he snored softly. "Crunch", the voice spoke once more, Crunch was immobile.

Suddenly his bed was shaking violently, he woke up and was startled beyond belief, he sat up "What the heck are you doing?!". Mecha had grabbed his bed frame with one arm and had the strength to shake him and the whole thing rapidly. Crunch squinted his eyes, "Mecha? Jeez why you gotta wake me like that? Wait, how did you get into my room?", he asked, grabbing his pillow and placing it over his face as he fell down onto his back.

Mecha let go of the frame, "Coco claimed we must surface at 8am sharp, you were taking too long, as it is 8:03am".

Crunch sat back up, "That's only three minutes!".

Mecha turned around, "Nevertheless, I took the liberty of entering with slight force". Crunch glanced over to his door, it was still there thankfully, but Mecha had broken the lock off entirely and somehow not woken him up. His only thought being that she must've used such little strength that she had to shatter it like nothing. The maroon coloured door was hanging ajar, a chunk of it missing near the handle, slowly moving back and forth and making a subtle creaking sound. Crunch gradually moved his eyes to Mecha, who turned around smiling, "You now have a nice summer draft coming through!". Mecha paused, Crunch said not a word, "You seem agitated, I shall come by again to make sure you get up properly".

With that, she walked out and down the hall, Crunch didn't hear her call for the others. He sighed and grabbed one of the many pairs of camo pants he owned, and quickly got dressed before she came barging in again. He soon walked into the main room and saw that the kitchen was occupied, everyone else was up and just about functioning. Crash had brought it upon himself to fetch some eggs, presumably from the fowl that now stayed by their place, and was frying eggs, ala Crash. Crunch smirked, normally Coco was the head chef in the household, but after last night, and showing how much work she had done with Mecha, it seems Crash was returning the favour. This was, however, something Crunch did have little faith with, as Crash never really cooked anything un-wumpa related whatsoever... What didn't help with Crunch's worries was Crash had a cookbook, with Aku Aku reading instructions to him.

Aku Aku could be heard in the distance, "Look, Crash, it's simple, just leave them that side up for three minutes". Crash nodded, leaning toward the pan and staring at the spattering egg, which did upchuck a small amount of oil in his face. Crash coughed slightly and was taken aback by this sudden reaction, the others slightly chuckled. Mecha then walked by, a bucket of water in each hand as well as some sponges. Aku Aku noticed this, "Is she heading out to clean the house? Admirable", he then turned back to Crash, "Ok, now for Coco's make sure you flip hers and fry that side too".

Crunch sat down at the table, with Coco on his right, she was sketching out some blueprints, which seemed to be modifications for Mecha. "Our mobile alarm clock sure is great, I get that she wants us up and about, but man am I exhausted from last night's brawl". Crunch leaned over, "Still on the clock huh? I think you've done enough so far, sis, we're proud".

Coco put her pencil down, "I suppose", she muttered, "But I just wanna keep pushing, if I could engineer some of these features, Mecha would be a marvel of engineering, for mankind... Oh and sorry about Mecha, she took it very literally for us to be up and about at 8 like usual. I'll have to tweak her a tad soon".

Crunch sighed softly, "Don't worry about it, long as we get to experience the day. Your dedication is pretty cool, Coco. Just don't push yourself too hard, speaking of pushing ourselves, Crash! Where's our grub?!".

Crash jumped and soon was running over, he had made two for each of them, even Coco's special request for hers. It was reassuring that he could get this right at least. After complimenting the chef, the family decided to help clean the hut down from last night. Coco headed outside first, due to the weather, she had a small beige sunhat covering her entire head, with a small pink flower adorned onto it. And chose a white summer dress, finalised with her iconic pink sneakers, as she was greeted by the harsh sunlight striking against her corneas, she heard some splashing around the corner. Mecha picked up a sponge and glared at it, Coco remembered there was much for her creation to learn. All Coco did earlier was give a list of things for Mecha to lug outside. Coco ran beside her, "Forgot to tell you how these work, huh?".

Crash and Crunch hopped outside, Aku Aku was not with them. Coco was demonstrating how to use a sponge in the most basic way, to which Mecha mimicked her 'Mistress', by following her scrubbing motion, and cracking a window with the power behind her arms... After Coco relocated their contraption companion around back where there was barely any glass, the family got to work.

Crunch hoisted a ladder over his shoulder and placed it firmly on the right side of the building, Crash hopping up there to see to the roof. Crunch held the ladder still with his left hand, whilst washing the now slightly broken window with his right. As Crash reached the top, his job was relatively easy as there was little damage done up top. However, he did see something that caught his eye. A few days ago, the family were at the beach as per, and on this day the family were messing about with an extra wumpa fruit by using it as a makeshift ball. Long story short, the siblings began to tease each other on how far they could throw it and Crunch outdid them, and it seems the small plump fruit had landed on their roof.

Luckily for Crash, not only did he have an iron stomach, but wumpas stayed fresh for many days, this whole situation was ideal for the orange marsupial. He grinned, wanting to get his sweet tooth on, and reached over, yet, his arm wasn't long enough to scale and pinch it. Crash began to grunt as he attempted to exert his body further, he then went on his tiptoes at the top of the ladder, causing it to slightly lean off of the house. Coco then spoke up, rinsing a sponge by twisting her wrists in opposite directions, "I still can't wait for our uniforms to get here, we can finally make something productive out of our lives".

Crunch nodded in approval, "You said it, heck, my course will actually help in our day to day lives of whooping Cortex's butt". As he made the statement, the ladder in his left hand was jittering, he peered up, "What're you doing, Crash?". There was no response, from Crash's perspective, he stared at his goal, and was soon in a fantasy. He was in a field of flowers, spinning slowly with his beloved wumpa fruit, not a care in the world, he could see it now... Crunch tutted, and grabbed the ladder with both of his hands, "If you're goofing around, bro". Crunch's sudden force on the ladder threw Crash's balance off, as he flung slightly forward, kicking the ladder back. In a matter of seconds, the ladder whacked over Crunch causing his head to be stuck between two of the steps, and he fell onto his rear trying to pry it off. Crash was able to snag the wumpa, he held it up to his face in a hug and stroked it softly. He then noticed he was stuck in mid-air, he gave a quick glance down and back up, only to fall, letting go of his catch.

Crash plummeted and thwacked straight into one of the metal buckets, the water dispersing outwards onto the dirt surrounding it, causing the ground to darken slightly in colour. His red sneakers stuck out of the bucket, and that was all, he was comically stuck. Crunch soon freed his skull and waltzed over to his brother, he picked up the bucket and placed on hand either side, the flipping it upside down, so Crash's feet were facing the Earth properly. As Crunch gently shook the steel, Crash slowly slid out, much like a can of dog food, and landed in a bucket-like shape, waddling around with a dopey expression adorned on his face. Both Crunch and Coco ended up laughing with Crash, who in turn found it funny, and was soon back to his normal shape, sadly without what he wanted.

Minutes had passed, and Mecha was done with her side of the house, she had thankfully not broken any other parts of their home. And was currently to the right of the Bandicoot hut, squatted down by a bush with her hands on her knees. Whilst the family wrapped up what they had to do, Mecha was observing a very miniscule, green caterpillar, adorned with some tiny orange horns, squishing and stretching its way along one of the leaves. "Ooh", Mecha gawped, "Such a fascinating method of traversing a vast landscape for one with such tiny mass...". Mecha held her hand out to the little fella, who seemed to not be keen on this hulking metal hand laid before him, and instead retreated slightly. Mecha's mouth silently formed an 'o' shape with curiosity, "Intimidated by larger beings...".

Crunch was then heard in the distance stretching with an audible 'aahhh' coming from him, he was relieved the tedious work was over and done with. "Welp, if we're done with this, I'm gonna get off to trainin' again, I'm feeling like going to the ruins in the forest".

Coco began packing up the utilities, "Alright, be careful around there", she stated, like she was the eldest sibling. She turned around and saw Mecha mimicking that of a caterpillar along the ground, "I don't even wanna know". In the background, the two could hear Mecha talking to herself, as if trying to find an optimal way to navigate in such a way. Coco could only blame herself, Mecha's A.I. was now free to explore and see the world, but right now, in this aspect, she was no different than a carefree child.

Crunch gave a small laugh and strolled off, heading north down a dirt trail that would take him to his destination, the path had a few pits that would be best avoided, instant death would follow if one fell down there, even if the spikes broke your fall... Then, after taking a right hand turn, a small log bridge and a few more pits awaited, once past there, a large purple cave entrance in the form of a tiki face sat. Inside the cave were many luminous lime-green mushrooms lighting the place, but Crunch instead went to the left of this entrance. This was where some of the similar tiki heads from by their home lay, along with a small pool of water, and a large tree log spread across it. Some of the old cannons that used to litter the place were now rusted over, no one knew if they were still in working order, and didn't want to know. Crunch began to warm up by laying himself down on the grass, it cushioning his spine, and starting some sit-ups.

Aku Aku, this entire time, had been inside, pondering his evil twin's actions, he hadn't shown his face at all recently. As a result, this had given Aku a feeling that something was severely amiss, his brother loved to stop by and give some cocky speech about how unstoppable his forces were. Even then, sometimes he enjoyed fighting Aku himself to prove who was more powerful. Coco strolled in, humming a tune all to familiar to the warp room theme back in Warped, "What's up Aku? How come you weren't out with us earlier?".

Aku Aku chose to stay silent, still in a deep trance, he then glanced up at his child, "Nothing to worry about, Coco, I was just feeling a tad concerned with our evildoer problem. I will be right back, I have to check on something quick". Aku Aku suddenly teleported away in a blue flash, Coco couldn't begin to know what her guardian was planning, so she put the cleaning stuff away, and was back outside in no time. As she stepped back out, she could instantly see Mecha had stopped looking so buffoonish, and was idle, logging something into her database, just as commanded. Coco smiled, happy to see her project was obedient and learning, Crash was off around the side of the house feeding the chickens gleefully. For once, Coco felt entirely relaxed, her ears suddenly twitched however, as she heard voices she wasn't used to, and there were plenty of them, she peered to the distance where the Tyrant lay. Coco could see what appeared to be N Sanity Academy students gawping and chatting as they witnessed the wreckage. Coco's curiosity got the better of her and she went to see what all the fuss was about. She figured it was just people wanting to see the wreckage, but how did people know about it so soon?

* * *

Upon arriving at the crowd, Coco stuck out like a sore thumb, being only in her usual white shirt, blue jeans attire, her shoes also a bright pink just naturally contrasted with the sun bleached sand. Coco squeezed past a couple of students, one of which was a male gecko, a mixture of green and yellow scales along his body, his voice quite ominous, like each word was almost dramatic and sounding a bit gravely, "Who needs manners anymore", he stated. Coco didn't hear this however, the gecko's pals shot each other a glare, one of them was in front of Coco, he himself was a relatively tall brown weasel, quite slim but had a sly grin slapped on his mug. He leaned his right leg out a tad, causing Coco to trip right over, sending her on a one-way course into the sea. She entered a slight panic as she couldn't swim like her brother, but her left hand was caught by a white, feathered one.

"Gotcha there, Co", Jill claimed, holding Coco at an angle just above the water, and pulled her up. Jill turned to the guy who did it, whose smile suddenly changed into concern, Jill frowned at him. "Watch it, Slick", she warned. Jill turned back to Coco, "Fancy seeing you, you live around here?". Coco, who's breathing was calming down, nodded in confirmation, Jill raised her eyebrows, "Wow, we were just checking on this robot, been word around campus all morning there was some huge fight we missed. Seems a bit dangerous, make sure you stay safe. I've heard all sorts of stories about that Cortex guy". Jill obviously didn't know that Coco's family had overthrown this Tyrant, and Coco kept quiet for now, mostly because of the crowd around them all in their own discussions.

After the two caught up for a little while, Jill glanced at her watch quickly and saw the time, it was close to morning class. "Darn, I have to jet, Co, say hi to the others for me!", Jill skedaddled with a few others and jogged back through the entrance by Skull Rock, now finalised thanks to Rod's work. The thought of Rod made Coco wonder where he was right now, but soon she noticed two shadows creep up to her. It seemed that she had attracted negative attention just now, the gecko straightened his blazer, "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met".

Coco locked eyes with him, "We haven't, I'm Coco, Coco Bandicoot" she said, holding her hand out in the open, expecting the handshake to be reciprocated.

Instead, his beady brown eyes glanced her over and chuckled, "Well, Coco, I can see you're not enrolled at our wonderful school but given your barbaric manners in public who can blame them?".

Coco's face instantly became one of disgust, "Excuse me? What gives you the right to-".

He laughed louder, "I see I struck a nerve, must mean it's quite true then, name's Carter. I was actually chosen by the N Sanity Academy because of my talents, incredible dedication and flawless grades".

Coco looked from side to side, "Ok?", she let out with a drawn-out tone, "I happen to have enrolled, so I guess I made the cut too, our uniforms are due soon. Besides, it doesn't look so tough when you rely on support from someone like this, against a girl no less".

Carter was slightly surprised, he was caught off guard "Please, what course could you be on? I doubt you'll get far, the only way to get anywhere in this world is to triumph over all, to stop at nothing to achieve first place. If you even try to outdo me, you'll be met with a swift blow back". Coco knew this wasn't getting good, this was ridiculous, they were like some corny movie gang, they were getting irritable with her for one accidental thing. His pal hadn't said a thing, Slick was silent.

Coco sighed, "Look, I don't know what I did to tick you off, but I didn't mean any harm, I'm sorry".

Carter squinted his eyes, "You sure should be, you and Jill are just the same, too blissfully ignorant of what's going on around you and how disadvantaged you are in the long run". Coco wasn't sure what he meant by that, but he suddenly turned away from her, "I hope we meet again, Coco, it'll be great to put you in your place". The two moved as one toward the academy, Coco watched them trail off, she scoffed, they were like some cliché cartoon characters. She could only hope she wouldn't have to run into them when she attended the academy.

Already her mind was set slightly off, she was so buzzed to learn, but now had a small bit of nerves with that pair. However, if they had to stick in a pack-like form, it's a good thing Coco had her brothers by her side in case of any drama. Still, why did they have to sink to such thuggish behaviour? She began to think that maybe they were just jerks, inside and out, and she shouldn't let them get to her. She had a future to seize.

Not far away, Carter lead his follower, who seemed pleased with how their encounter went, simply laughing at their 'triumph'. Carter suddenly stopped and turned to him, "You think we won that? She made me look like a fool you mindless dolt... Couldn't even input anything. Pathetic. I won't let her beat me; I've already lost once too many times to those who don't deserve it". Slick said not a word yet again, Carter walked away quickly through the cavern, Slick followed moments after.

Coco walked back to her home, and decided that right now, she needed some escapism. Thankfully, the bandicoots had an old handheld game system that Crash had found many years ago. He had even taken it with him on some of his adventures, Coco dug around under their TV stand and pulled out the bright purple handheld and began to get sunk into some games for a while. As for now, she just had to wait a day or two until her school life could begin. Although, thanks to Carter, she felt it was already off to a bad start...

Just outside, Mecha had moved on from caterpillar watching, to seeing an average-sized Australian Catbird. It stood perched on a tree branch that Mecha was watching from underneath, despite all of her combat prowess and knowledge, the amount of varied wildlife around her made her very intrigued to learn about life and nature's way. The bird peered down at the automaton, it's red dot-like eyes staring back at her. He then suddenly took off, rapidly flapping his wings to another tree.

"Flight capabilities, through something akin to an upward and downward force...", she attempted to scale one of the many towering trees in the jungle, this wouldn't end well.

* * *

At the academy, Jill was beginning to warm up for her morning class, after doing some stretches and changing into the N Sanity Academy athletic uniform (a yellow t-shirt with a grey rim on the sleeves and bottom of the shirt, and some shorts in a similar design), she came into one of the main halls in the building. As Jill walked with some of her colleagues, she noticed she was crossing paths with Carter, who was peering down at the floor as he traipsed the hallway, headed to the south building.

Jill spoke up, "Hey Carter, don't think I didn't see what you tried to pull on Coco".

Carter slowed down but was still trailing forward, "Why, what ever could you mean? Letting someone know their place is honesty, right? Isn't that better than lying to someone and getting their hopes up?".

Jill's feathered fists balled up a little upon hearing this, "I thought I saw you inching over to her, what did you say to her?".

Carter put his hands in his pockets, "Me? I didn't say anything that wasn't a dose of the truth, something that is awfully absent these days".

At this point, Jill's patience was wearing thin, and it was clear, as her voice was raising in volume, "Don't even try bullying another student, especially in this school. You just got here; I won't let you". Both of them stopped in their tracks, the other physical education students carrying on outside.

Carter turned slowly to her, "I was only retaliating to someone who had wronged me, like I had to before. Besides we all know that our old school was absolute trash, they accepted you of all people".

Ami walked out, carrying some sports equipment, namely some rackets and tennis nets, she could sense the tension between the two right here. "Uhh, is everything cool here?".

"Yes", both of them quickly said, sounding slightly snappy.

Ami darted her eyes at the two teens, and shrugged, "Alright, see you outside in a sec, Jill", she claimed, taking her leave.

Once Ami left, Jill continued, her beak slightly tightened, "You know damn well what actually happened and what you caused. You scaly creep. I'm at this school as well, what reason would they enrol me here if that's the case?".

Carter smirked, "I recall it slightly differently, old friend, now, I must head to class, some of us are naturally wanted in the world for our skills. Unlike those picked out just for us to set an example for". With a confident stride in his step, the arrogant gecko turned a corner, out of Jill's sight.

Jill folded her arms and cursed under her breath, she knew she shouldn't get so worked up over his attitude and antics, but it peeved her so much. She could remember how he used to be, and how much she wished he could revert to his old self. Sadly, she knew this wasn't possible, all she hoped for was that Coco was alright, and hadn't been scared off by someone who, in actuality, was no more than a yappy, pitiful dog. Jill had to set her thoughts aside, and she briskly ran outside to catch up with the others.

* * *

Crunch had scaled the large cliff that resided in the area, laying on his back once more enjoying the rare few clouds that were gliding by, going with the flow. He was mostly just picturing what this new school life would be like for him, and especially his younger siblings, it seemed entirely positive. Yet at the back of his mind, he started to worry about if this was all too good to be true. How convenient it was that this academy sprung, and they were all given a new chance at life, to become whatever they wanted, to change their destiny. Crunch shook the thought away, figuring he was being too negative, after all, considering their luck, this was a godsend.

* * *

Crash once again sat on the fence surrounding their chicken pen, with the application form in hand. However, our hero had actually ticked a few boxes and chose a course. Crash had been aching his brain trying to figure out what he should go for, he was terrible at so many of these subjects laid out before him. It was almost like they were mocking him for not being too bright, but in the end, Crash decided to choose the same course as Crunch and Jill. Not because he needed their company, but he figured it was his best shot at keeping on top of everything his arch nemesis could throw at them all in the future. Truth be told, Crash wasn't too stoked about applying for this school, he could take it or leave it, he truly felt alive on an adventure...

The way he saw it, this was just a stepping-stone to becoming the hero he wanted to be, to get stronger, and to be able to face anything that could surface. Suddenly, a loud impact was heard to his right, Crash turned his head and saw Mecha implanted in the ground. He could hear her voice muffled under the ground "Flight Test: Attempt #1, not successful...". Crash had no idea where she had leapt from, he hopped off of the fence and began to wander over to the academy, he would only be a few minutes.

* * *

Back at Cortex's lair, Neo was sat rubbing his forehead, Uka Uka was silent and floating next to his underling. Cortex had just finished scolding his last minion, Pinstripe, who looked like he hadn't taken it very well. Cortex raised his head slightly, "How do I get into these situations... Ugh...".

Just then, the gargantuan purple door swung open with a large drawn out squeak, "Sir! Sir! We have found a way! After many hours, the Brats actually had a concept finalised. I put it into production, and we have the perfect way to summon him!", N Gin waddled in with a small black device, a diddy metal rod extruding out of it, with a single green button.

Cortex turned slightly to his right-hand man, "Breathe, N Gin".

N Gin slid the device along the table, it slid along the surface, slowing down just in front of the yellow, irradiated scientist. N Gin spoke up, "It simply acts as a beacon by matching up with his frequency and pulse, like a targeting system. We know it works with mechs and cyborgs in theory, so we should be good! It's only just been made though... We have no idea if it could work on someone or something purely biological".

The two shared a small glance, and both smiled, "I can't believe you did it. I thought he was lost in the sea years ago. What fascinating technology, I'm glad some people around here can get stuff done". Obviously referring to Nina's missteps lately, Nina herself was still secluded in her room.

Cortex brought the tool up near his face, a wide toothy smile along his face, he didn't hesitate to prod the button with some force. Within seconds, a large blue emanating portal spontaneously appeared. With a figure walking out, his metallic, bronze legs clanking on the floor, some seawater dripping off of him and patting the surface quietly. Cortex put his hands together in a laced finger hold, "How wonderful it is to see you again, old friend, we have been searching for you for quite some time".

He stayed quiet, looking at the doctor dead in the eye, Uka Uka looked delighted at this development. Cortex continued, "We've been having a bit of a snafu with our putrid pests, a new kind of battle robot is on their side... I was wondering if you could lend us a hand. Our young blood seemed to struggle, so I wanted to call for an old comrade. Considering we saved you from that blue abyss. I trust you're up for a little revenge against that rotten bandicoot and his pack".

His chest was ticking slightly, as the hands on the clock gradually shifted around, he straightened himself up, his pistons on his shoulders now pumping quicker. "With pleasure", N Tropy stated, a strong sense of malice in his eyes.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: I know, I know, I'm really pushing it with my inconsistency. The past month has been a real rough one, and this story has been circling in my head the whole time. I'm honestly thankful for anyone who reads this. I'll cut it out with these notes I promise.**

* * *

 _A young, shy gecko was currently sat in what seemed to be a jungle gym, slightly rusted and worn over years of use. His scaly green body contrasted the orange paint slapped on the metal bars. He sat on one of the lowest bars, so he was essentially propped up against it. His arms were spread out, clasping onto a beam either side of him, on the other side of the playground were assorted animal children all playing and just having a merry time together. Many were amidst a game of tag, as some played with a football as well._

 _The small lizard sighed quietly, he wasn't sure how to approach them, to even start a conversation. He could easily fit in to that group of youths and blend in, he was a natural at many things, he knew that to be true. However, socially, he was beyond inept. How could he initiate a discussion? Start with a joke? No, that's terrible... Too corny, maybe with some interesting trivia? Why was it so hard to see a simple solution to this problem? Perhaps overthinking helped keep his mind engaged before he began to worry too much and cause an issue internally._

 _Soon after thinking about all of this, a frisbee flew right toward the boy, it pinged off of one of the bars making an audible clang. It caused him to jump slightly, being brought back into reality, he peered down at the red disc, soon a pair of hands grasped it, "Oopsie" they said. A child the same age as the reptile leaned down and back up, the frisbee back in his posession, "Sorry about that!", he seemed to be a tanned weasel, his eyes a distinct lime-green, his build was very slim and slender. Before the timid gecko could converse, the weasel was called back by someone else he was playing with, his friend looked to be slightly bigger than the other children, s bear, he looked rough._

 _Yet again, Carter was alone, he groaned slowly as he glanced back down at his feet, his yellow sneakers sticking out against the gravel floor. A few more minutes passed, until he heard someone grunting and some small clinking sounds behind him, someone was actually near him. Carter turned quickly and faced inside the cage, a small eagle was scaling the gym, rather well one might say for her age. Carter watched as she went to the top and stood atop the frame, placing her left foot forward and her right hand horizontally over her eyes, as if she were overseeing the land. Just like everyone else, she was wearing what seemed to be a uniform, a white polo shirt, with some small logo by the left part of the chest, and a pair of deep blue shorts, she too wore sneakers, a pink pair._

 _She made a small, shrill chuckle, and seemed to be talking to herself, "A perfect place for my hideout", she noted, Carter was more confused. The girl nodded to herself and then peered down, noticing Carter, "Oh, hi there!". Carter was taken aback, someone willingly wanted to speak to him. She descended to him and hopped down onto the ground, right in front of him._

 _She held out her right hand, "Nice to meet you, I'm Jill! I'm playing heroes-", she stopped, and looked about the place for any eavesdroppers, she then whispered into Carver's face, "Secret heroes...". Carter was speechless, Jill continued, "It seems you found my hideout, do you wish to join me in saving the world?". Her hand was still held out, Carter slowly reached his own hand to hers and softly held it._

 _Carter found the courage to speak up, "I-I'm Carter, you like to play pretend too?"._

 _Jill nodded excitedly, "Uh huh! I like sports and stuff, but my Mom said I have a great imagination! I always thought comic heroes are cool, so I pretend I'm one, and stop bad guys!". Jill struck a few goofy poses,_ _Carter smiled a little, feeling comfortable around someone already, it was like an instant spark of friendship with how silly she kooky she was compared to his more reserved personality. Jill then pointed to his face, "Do you wanna join me on my adventures?"._

 _Carter hesitated as he overthought a lot on how to even communicate with others, but he soon nodded. Jill looked ecstatic, "Cool! I couldn't find anyone else who wanted to play this with me before"._

 _Hearing this, Carter felt some relatability with that, though he knew he'd seen Jill hanging with other students, mostly girls, before. He couldn't even remember having a proper conversation with someone else here, ever. However, their plans were cut short, as their teacher had called the end of their recess period. Jill stood next to Carter, "Hey, we'll play properly next time, 'kay?", she held out her left pinky finger. Carter observed her hand, then her face, beaming, he inspected her hand again, she then wagged her pinky finger as if to say 'come on'. He then reciprocated the hold, Jill cheered, "Great! It's a promise! I'll come sit with you in class if you want"._

 _Carter's eyes widened, "Really? Why?"._

 _Jill tilted her head a little, "Because we're friends, silly"._

 _There was a brief pause, Carter then tightened his grasp on her finger, "Friends...", he whispered._

* * *

Aku Aku suddenly appeared, a soft warping sound echoed as he did so. He appeared to be in a ruin-like area, very brown and rocky, he seemed to be somewhere in the middle of space. There was some sort of chair, a throne of sorts, with some steps toward it, the area surrounded in rubble, palm trees and shrubbery. Aku Aku had been here before, when he controned Uka Uka way back on one of his schemes. However, once Crash overcame Cortex's Wrath, this area was now slightly different. Before Aku Aku sat four unique and varied masks, and they all seemed disappointed that he had arrived. They were all in what seemed to be cages made out of magical beams, essentially, they were locked up.

Aku Aku looked at them all one by one, "I came to check something, Elementals, I don't know if you're somehow involved with Uka Uka. But I will find out".

Py-Ro exhaled, the Fire Elemental, known to be one of the most powerful among their group, was stuck in place. He seemed to have three flame streaks atop his head and one either side of his jaw, he had white tribal stripes on his knose as well as searing orange eyes, staring at the good natured twin. "As if we'd have anything to do with that traitor after how he left us last time...", his voice very strained, he sounded like he meant it. Aku Aku narrowed his eyes, not believing this act.

"I don't have anything conclusive, but my twin has been absent from our recent battle lately. So I wanted to see if he was planning something much bigger", Aku claimed. A silent wind passed, the Elementals all exhcanged confused glances. It appeared that Aku Aku was incorrect in his gut feeling. Then again, it had been a fair few years since these disastrous and catastrophic masks were freed...

"If you got nothin' else to do here, then get outta here. Last guy we wanna talk to is you, feather-head". A more bullyish voice exclaimed, Aku turned a little to his left and saw Rok-Ko, the Earth Elemental. He was quick to anger as well as being one to start fights with others. He had a rugged brown and rocky-like face, with orange stripes alone his two antler-like ears, and his forehead. His teeth were also this colour, so one wouldn't get a good first impression upon seeing him.

Aku Aku frowned, "I am not here to antagonise anyone, Rok-Ko. I am simply checking up on a worrying thought I had inside, I will leave you be". He turned around and spoke to himself quietly, "Wrong again, could it be that my sinister twin is really not up to something?".

Aku Aku began to teleport back to N Sanity Island, Rok-Ko spoke up, "Yeah, that's it, run!". Aku Aku shook his head slowly and sighed.

* * *

Nina had been staring outside for a good half hour, and saw one of the islands in the distance, of course it was N Sanity Island... It looked absolutely miniscule from here, but Nina could make out some of its landmarks, even this new academy that some of the Brat Girls had been conversing about lately. Of course, Nina couldn't make out much of what was going on over there, but the island appeared to be thriving as opposed to theirs, which was mostly industrialised and barren of life. Nina wasn't shaken by this though, she often enjoyed the solitude, as much as she was the queen bee of her social circle with the Brat Girls, as of now, she saw them as pure underlings and bandicoot fodder. They weren't her friends after what they pulled a little while back. Nina just kept up the facade that it was water under the bridge, when, if anything, it ticked her off just being around them.

A few floors below, plunging deeper past various steel floors, lay a darkened room. The small space luminated only by one singular, black ceiling lamp, which was currently being occupied by various Potoroos. A thick smoke filled the room, as many of these lot were smoking various cigars, Pinstripe's little army had gathered for a meeting called by their leader himself. The assorted goons sat in silence, Pinstripe was pacing around the room, back and forth, back and forth... Suddenly he stopped, everyone took notice, Pinstripe finally broke the five minute silence, "So I just had words with Boss". He leaned against a bleak blue wall to his right, "Apparently we're not providing enough to his cause... He seems to forget the amount of weapons we sell off and trade to fund his loopy inventions".

A chubby Potoroo spoke up, his voice was quite dopey in comparison and more gentle, "Whuh? Is he not grateful? We work real hard to get that stuff out!".

Next to him, a very petite and lanky Potoroo chimed in, "Seems to me, like our services ain't being appreciated, we barely even get to see our cut half the time...".

Pinstripe huffed, they were right, mostly all they got for their work now was a roof over their head, some cigars and suits. In fact, Pinstripe hadn't even considered that this whole time, what was he really gaining from this? He was putting out more than he was getting in, and all these crazy attempts to kill an oversized bandicoot just wasn't getting any of them anywhere... "Let's not jump to any conclusions, guys", he began, sitting at the head of the table, "I can see your point, slim, maybe we're in need of a. Well. A transition. Once the boss gets back from the 'trip' he had planned, we'll discuss terms with him".

* * *

The cave through Skull Rock to the Academy didn't seem so long to Crash anymore. It was just a little bit cold, it made no difference, he'd be back into the rays of the sun soon enough. Once more he pulled out his application, and yet again, he felt a mixture of nerves and promise. He was confident he could be a hero more than anyone, it's what he did best, he wasn't being arrogant, it was simply how it felt with all the plots he foiled. But would he fit into a school environment? Let alone one that could be strict and riddled with rules? Bah, of course he could, it would just be a change he'd need to adapt to! The sun came back into view, along with the soft crashing of waves to his right, the academy stood ahead of Crash.

With a spring in his step, he waltzed over to the admittedly bleak looking building. Passing by various students who were either chilling on the beach or hanging by the cliffside in a suspicious manner. Soon he pushed open the glass front doors, and was back in the main lobby, he wandered to the main desk.

A female receptionist sat firmly planted, stapling a few papers together and checking a few charts. She seemed to be fellow bandicoot, but one Crash had never seen before... Behind her rimless glasses were a pair of crystal pink eyes, which seemed to go with her smokey-grey fur. She seemed to be wearing a long sleeve dress, which retained the academy's deep blue theme, she wore the similar white undershirt but didn't have a tie to speak of. She held her black and white mixed fringe out of her right eye as she focussed intently on her work. Crash stood there, paper by his chest, for a good few minutes, being a mute he had a hard time getting her attention. The fact it took a little bit to notice him added to the awkwardness he felt. However, she did spot him in due time, and moved her current focus to the side of the curved workplace. "Ah, here to apply? Just in time, we don't have many spots left open", her voice had a similar tone to that of Tawna, it was deeper than many other women's that Crash had heard, indicating she was older, but it was quite silvery and clear, gentle.

However Crash had said nothing so far, so Amanda simply stared back, she then slightly widened her eyes as if to ask "Well?". Crash then placed his form on the desk, it slid along the laminated surface for a moment, he then pointed onto the paper where his name was. Amanda pulled the form to her and scanned for a few seconds, "That's a yes, then. I'll just sort you out a sec...", she began to type extensively, setting up a school profile for Crash. Nothing seemed to occur for the next while, the main lobby was fairly absent, even outside there weren't that many students roaming about. Obviously due to classes going on, most of the action around the school was further into the building.

"We're glad to have you on board at N Sanity Academy, Crash", Amanda mentioned, wrapping up things on her end, "Your uniform will be delivered ASAP, we managed to get yours bulked with your sibling's". Crash, although silent, seemed thankful as he grabbed her hand with both of his, shaking it up and down, and he was soon back outside. Amanda did find him amusing, after having a small chuckle, she focussed back on her papers, Crash began to plot his journey back home and find something else to do to occupy his day.

Around the right side of the academy, the sports students, namely the girls, had set up what seemed to be volley ball nets in the sand, and were having 2v2 matches between each other. A few floors up, sat Carter, watching his former friend have the time of her life and bonding with her classmates. He was sat toward the back of the classroom, individual desks planted in rows, about 4 of them, and he was at the back-end on the right. The room was consistent in the colour themes of the academy, half of the notice boards and walls were either navy blue, black or yellow. Most students were sat and ready for the proceeding lesson, but the teacher was yet to arrive.

"Look at her...", Carter growled aloud, to his left, his slimy weasel sidekick, Slick, peered over.

"What? Jill again?", he pondered.

Carter huffed, "Who else, isn't it cute how she just acts like nothing happened this whole time. Where does she get the nerve...".

Not long after, the teacher, in his rotund glory, brashly entered the classroom. Commanding everyone to pay attention, Carter was so focussed on Jill he didn't even pay his work or the teacher any mind.

Back outside, Crash held his hands in his pockets, enjoying the soft plushy feel of sand under his shoes. Just a few feet away, Jill was taking a small break as another set played, and called Crash over, the two had a chat, well, as much of a chat one can have with Crash about the upcoming year. Jill seemed exceptionally excited that Crash was also joining along with his siblings.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the seafront where the Tunnel Tyrant lay, some small, one manned submarines submerged, they had a pair of metal arms attached to them and they surrounded the hulking mech. The submarines were a faded metallic colour, it was clear they were old and worn. They were manned by a few Brat Girls, and seemed to be pulling the Tyrant back under the sea. At the same time, N Tropy's bronze feet reached the sand, having just come out of a warp portal, which he thankfully still had access to. "We are here, at this filthy barn, what are your orders, Uka Uka?".

Uka Uka, who was quitely floating next to Tropy, seemed pleased, "An underling who doesn't question authority, take notes, Cortex...".

Cortex, who had just landed his hovercraft and laid it next to him, didn't respond, he just huffed. Then choosing to go back on topic, "I had a few scout bots survey the shack, there hasn't been much activity from the bandicoots lately. For all we know, they're inside and waiting for a potential strike".

Tropy folded his arms and laughed in a cocky manner, "I can take any of them, all that time adrift has fueled my craving for some roadkill".

Cortex smirked, "Be careful though, as my foolish niece discovered, they've built an automaton of that infernal egghead sister of Crash's... And it's not just for show". Cortex turned to the Brat Girls and snapped his fingers a few times, with the audible clicks, they all moved in unison and pulled the Tyrant under. Inside the deep blue, a larger submarine sat, it was a typical design, but adorned with a few weapons, gattling guns, torpedos, the works. The paint job was reminiscent of Team Cortex's kart colour scheme during the Velo race tournament. Red and golden, with just a smidge of white. As the underlings dragged the mech past the tiki heads and into the hull of the sub, the three villains on the surface turned back around.

Cortex cleared his throat, "Second time's the charm".

A few feet away, Mecha was currently covering up the holes she had made in the ground, most of which were outlines of herself. "Pat pat pat", she whispered, then picking up movement suddenly, three new signs of life! She turned and watched the three men coming her way, she hopped to her feet and walked to them as well. Eventually both groups stopped and there was a brief period of silence, Mecha glanced at each once, they didn't look eager to chat. "Greetings!", Mecha began, performing a small bow, "Are you here to see Crash? Coco? Crunch? They are all busy right now". She obviously didn't recognise any of them, as the last group that assaulted her and her family were all different mooks...

N Tropy leaned toward her face, he grabbed his chin with his right thumb and index finger, looking her over. "Yes... I see what you mean, Cortex. Quite an impressive job, looks a lot like the girl indeed".

Mecha straightened back up, "Do you refer to my mistress? I was designed in her likeness, including state of the art A.I. developed by *BLANK*".

That suddenly shout caught the three antagonists off guard slightly. Firstly it was a surprise, but why was that wiped from her memory? Cortex stroked his chin with his left thumb and index finger very slowly.

N Tropy leaned back, "I am here to get commupance for what your 'hero' did to me".

Mecha tilted her head, "You refer to brother Crash?".

Tropy rolled his eyes, "Of course", he hated playing along but if there was anyone he wanted to find right now, it was that vermin. The others were of no concern to him. Just obstacles. Now that wasn't how Cortex percieved this, if anything, this robot here was just another addition to the waking nightmare that was the bandicoot family.

Mecha had a percentage appear in her visor, as she quickly loaded up memories of where Crash had headed off to. "Ah", she started, "I recall seeing him-".

Just at that moment, Aku Aku reappeared, back from the Elemental's prison island in space. The entire group went quiet again. Aku Aku locked eyes with his twin brother, who in return grinned and stared back. Aku Aku sighed, "I searched the ends of the universe to find out what sinister plot you had been planning, Uka Uka. And yet, here you are right where I wouldn't expect, threatening the children I must protect, is there any low you won't sink to?

Uka Uka looked upwards, as if thinking, and went back to smiling, "I don't know, can't tell until I tick it all off the bucket list, right?".

"You monster!" Aku exclaimed, firing a blue beam from his eyes, it was so quick that Uka Uka couldn't react, it sent him back a little bit, the mask flew and tumbled on the floor in the distance. Tropy and Cortex looked at where their master lay, until Uka slowly got up laughing softly, this grew into harder, more maniacal laughter.

"You always held back, brother, I'll show you why it's a grave mistake, to ever cross me, to ever strike me!", Uka screamed, lobbing a red energy ball right at his twin, who dodged, but part of the attack skimmed his green leafy beard, causing it to char slightly.

Mecha watched with confusion, "I do not understand, shouldn't siblings get along? Mistress Coco said that-".

Aku Aku turned to her, "Trust me, no one could understand this relationship more than me, and him". With that the brothers both dashed toward each other, and entered a rapid tornado flurry, both masks attempting to strike each other and were moving so fast, they looked to be spinning out of control about the grassland.

Tropy turned his attention to Mecha, "While they play, dear, could you inform me where 'brother' Crash is?" he said in a condescending manner. She did not respond, Tropy growled, "Come on, do me a favour".

Mecha stared up at Tropy, "If you are not allies, then you're adversaries", as she finished her statement, her eyes turned from the usual blue to a light orange. Tropy sighed, pinching his forehead, Mecha continued, "I do not see you refute this claim", her visor transitioning to a red shade, beginning to run combat parameters.

Tropy gave a toothy, sadistic grin, "Oh I see, we've been found out, huh, well then, dear. I'll play too". Tropy summoned a warp portal to his left, he held out his left hand and soon a large tuning fork hit his palm with a twang noise that echoed through the trees. Tropy spun it around in his hand until he then grabbed his fork with both hands, and held it forwards, angled at his opponent, "Do you wish to be on my time? Metal skunk?".

Mecha clenched her fists and bent her knees slightly, left foot forward, right foot behind. "I accept your challenge, sir".

Cortex watched in glee, hands clasped together, but like Tropy stated, they were here for Crash. The mad doctor darted his head about, looking for him he would stand out against all this dark green forestry... Cortex ran to where his board was and began to fly up above the hut, scanning for his mortal enemy. If he was lucky, Tropy would be preoccupied and he could exterminate the menace once and for all.

Inside the home of the bandicoots, Coco put aside her gaming device, and looked to the ceiling, she let out a gentle exhale. She could try to invent something right now, she should do something with herself while she waited for her uniform to arrive. It was the final piece and then she could get the next step of her life on the roll... Just then she heard a very high pitched twang noise, the windows looked to wobble slightly in response, odd. Coco wandered to the previously cracked window by the front door and couldn't fathom anything to say at what she saw. How on Earth was N Tropy still ticking? No, what mattered was getting somewhere safe, he was on another level compared to some of their other enemies... But Mecha was outside right now standing her ground, so surely Coco should to.

Reaffirming that it was the right thing to do, Coco patted her face a few times and breathed in and out a few times, before marching outside. _"All I have to do is stall time for Crash and Crunch to get back",_ she plotted. Although this wouldn't be as easy, she could see now that Aku Aku and Uka Uka were in a mini fight of their own, and Cortex seemed occupied floating above their home. Despite the odds seeming against them, she took a few more paces and watched, standing upright.

Tropy raised his weapon, "Let's see if you can impress me like your beastly kin!", he struck down, Mecha simply kept her right foot in place, and move the rest of her body to move so that her body was now 90 degrees rotated, counter-clockwise. Tropy raised an eyebrow, "Think you can just brush my offense off easily eh?", he simply swung to his left, where Mecha hopped and landed on the fork. Now firmly in the ground and not a threat, she watched as Tropy ground his teeth visciously and glared at her with malice... She simply swung a right hook, launching the time master off of his feet briefly, he landed on his feet, dragging through a dirt slightly. "Aren't you an agile one... Skunk", he muttered to himself, Mecha walked off of his trusty tuner, and launched herself toward him, at break-neck speed. Tropy held his right hand on his chest, and as she got right by him, he twisted his clock's hands backwards.

Instantly, a green wave, with scattering yellow digits flew through the world, and for a moment, everything slowed down to a crawl, except Tropy, who then grinned as he grabbed Mecha by the throat. Turning around toward the trees behind him, the old chicken coop on the other side, and let go of her, due to the speed of him in real time, gravity didn't have any time to act and pull Mecha back to the ground. What seemed like a split second, he forcefully kicked her in the stomach, right through the trees, then turning time back to normal. From how it looked from Coco's perspective, it seemed like he was moving at lightning speed, and instantly turned Mecha's advantage topside.

Mecha couldn't process much of what just happened. However right now she was blowing right through thick trees and rocketing toward Skull Rock behind her. She quickly engaged her shield countermeasure, which took the impact but left a large semi-sphere imprint at the base of the mountain. Small rocks came plundering down, but Mecha tried to stay focussed on her opponent, this one was no joke.

She tried to scan for him in the distance but was picking up multiple heat signatures, and soon saw what her sensors picked up, a barrage of metal orbs, making a high pitched ringing sound. They were picking up speed, some were red and lower to the ground, whilst others were blue and higher up... A pattern that Mecha could figure out no problem, she started to run back whilst avoiding the assortment of bullets. She sidestepped the reds and kept her head low for the blues, that is until a large orange heat beam appeared in seconds by her feet. It crawled toward her, likely to trip her up, she hopped over it and saw Tropy once more, tuning fork back in his posession. Mecha went for an elbow strike downwards, she leapt and struck, but Tropy parried it no problem, throwing a counterattack of his own, the two began to struggle to find an opening. Coco, relieved Mecha was ok, began to notice that despite Tropy having such extroadinary powers, they came at a price, he couldn't use them willy nilly. Eventually the two were holding their stances, struggling to win the power struggle, Tropy had struck vertically and Mecha had caught his weapon between her palms, the two locked in tunnel vision.

* * *

Crash kept his slow pace, thriving in the atmosphere on the East end of N Sanity Island, he had just finished his talk with Jill and reached the cave entrance, set on returning home. He suddenly felt a large tremour of sorts, knocking him onto his behind, he scanned the area to see what was up, another Cortex attack? It wasn't around here, how could that be? A cluster of rocks landed beside him, having been knocked by Mecha's impact seconds ago. Crash was up onto his feet and worried, all of the athletes outside stopped what they were doing and a few other students about the island on free time were also panicked.

"What was that?!", one of them screeched.

"Got me, let's head inside", another moaned.

Ami made sure everyone was relaxed, "Don't worry, guys, for all we know this is the Earth doing something freaky".

Jill put her hands in her pockets, "Is it normal for this island to have movements like that?".

Ami paused, she scratched the back of her head, "From my time here, and the other islands... It is quite rare I'll admit". This comment unintentionally made the students go back into worrying and talking among their groups about what was going on. Ami sighed, she pinched the bridge of her nose, "There I go runnin' my mouth off again, I wish I had 'their' talents sometimes. They could keep people focussed or calm". Whilst Ami reminisced slightly, Jill saw Crash make a quick run through the tunnel toward his home, without saying anything, she too followed suit. Ami turned around, "Jill! Don't go runnin' off at a time like this!", her voice was serious but it didn't phase the teen, who just kept going.

Ami huffed and soon heard the doors to the lobby open, "What the Hell is going on, Ami?!", Amanda had asked in a panic, she ran to her colleague's side. Ami was quiet for a few seconds before speaking up.

"Trouble", she said, a small hint of worry in her voice, nevertheless she kept strong in front of the students, "But for now, we join the others inside and huddle there. I'm bringing those two back, somewhere safe".

Amanda glanced at the students all bundled up close together, "You got it. Where are these two you're on about?".

Ami tilted and leaned her head left and right, making small clicks, "She's safe, for now, but I'm gonna make sure she's secure. Amanda, escort the others inside, I'll be back".

With a firm confirmation nod, Amanda lead the others toward the academy, "Make sure you're back safe, Ami. Don't go gettin' into a pointless scrap". Ami locked eyes with Amanda, she knew that she was right. Ami had her moments of misreading situations, but this here didn't feel like any normal 'scrap'. With this in mind, Ami sprinted to where the two children went.

* * *

Nina had snuck out of her room, upon reaching the stairs to head down, her ears pricked up upon hearing a few familiar names. The Brat Girls seemed to be gossiping about the latest in their evil schemes, Nina crept over to the door to the recreational room and pressed her back on the wall tot he left of the doorframe. "You can tell that Old Man Cortex is getting sick of his dull lackeys", one of them jabbed, cackling after.

"Yeah, haven't seen them since, you reckon they're in the holding cells?".

"Where else, once you're down there, you don't have much use to Cortex anymore. Surprised he let Nina off the hook".

"Well, he let Pinstripe off, he's the favourite. So with Nina it doesn't shock me at all, they are family".

"Lucky by blood, huh".

"They don't kill them down there, do they?".

"Course not, I heard you stay there a long time though".

After eavesdropping the brief chat, Nina heard footsteps coming from the room, she scattered and dove into her uncle's old lab. The Brat Girls didn't even go far into the hallway, just taking the stairs not far from the rec room. Nina's eyes could be seen scowling to the left through a gap about head height in the old door. She turned around, her heart pumping a little bit there, and sighed, regaining her composure. "Holding cells? Didn't think that Uncle even used those...", she said aloud, she didn't want to admit it, but she was a little bit worried about her minions down there. She assumed that the rest of their squad from last night was being held down there. But even if they were, that's a very harsh reaction from Cortex, that didn't seem right at all.

Her thoughts subsided seeing the dusty and decrepid room. Nina slowly walked throughout the room, there were countless cages on the far right, all labelled with what creature was in there before using the Evolvo-Ray and the Cortex Vortex, naturally. Before her sat a ruined Cortex Vortex, the first of its kind, shards of metal missing from it, and it had collected a sizable amount of dust, namely on the chair. Nina recalled her uncle's old partner, N Brio, but never got to know him properly, obviously that relationship had soured over the years...

She was too absorbed by her own thoughts that she was walking backwards slightly, gawping at the Vortex, and tripped on a misplaced book. Behind her was a hefty bookshelf, angular and dark blue, upon bashing the back of her head against it, a small red notebook landed by her feet. "Ouch...", she grumbled, rubbing the rear of her skull gently, it felt a bit sensitive, she glanced down at what lay before her. Nothing fancy on the outside, just a red notebook, Nina knelt down and picked it up. Upon opening the first page she saw a few sketches and ideas for inventions that Cortex had failed to get out of the testing phase.

She sat down in front of the bookshelf, cross-legged and peering into a few pages, one caught her eye, as it was where one of Cortex's bookmarks was. Although what caused Nina to be interested further was that there wasn't much dust on the notebook, nor the bookmark. Was this addition recent? Instinctively she read out the title, "Psychetron", she paused for a second and recalled a memory. "That was that huge thing from the Iceberg Lab! The dimension teleporter, why would Uncle want to harness that power again after what we had to go through?". Nina continued to read in silence, her eyes narrowing gradually with each word, ending with her looking baffled. She kept the book in her hands, she didn't have any sort of pocket on her to store it, she quickly and briskly went to the exit of the room. Thankfully, no one was about, so she quickly hopped back into her room and closed it swiftly.

Back inside, she held the book in her hands and clasped it a little, "If I could help Uncle with this plan, I could redeem myself, I'm sure he won't mind me making adjustments by myself until I unveil it to him...". With a quick grab of a pen and ideas scrambling in her noggin, Nina lay on her bed and began to jot notes.

* * *

Crash had gone through this network so many times, but they seemed so much longer than normal, maybe it was the dread of worrying what was happening that was making it feel painfully extended. The only thoughts coursing through his mind were _"Please be ok, Aku Aku, Crunch"._ He paused as he came back outside, by the newly built bridge leading to the large fallen rock starting the path to Skull Rock. He could see a large vacant space and even his house from here, he could see Coco shouting, looking upwards, and Cortex, barking back, staring down at her. _"Coco"_ , he felt a wave of anxiety hit his gut, and began to hit his feet harder on the ground than ever, despite he was riddled with concern, he felt faster than before when he had his sprint sneakers, which now wish he had put on.

Jill just turned up by the cave entrance, panting slightly, "Jeez, Crash, slow down!", she then saw Cortex in the distance, and tightened her hands softly. "No way, it's him".

Ami, at the back of the pack, was staring straight ahead with determination, "Kids, runnin' off like that, who would be so stupid". A few quick flashes of her childhood and teen years flew by, including a few memories of her old friends from the nitro squad. With a small tear in her eye, that soon swept off of her face and flew behind her, Ami flared up, "If something big is going down, I won't let them down!".

Aku Aku and Uka Uka were floating a few feet apart from each other, both slightly tired, and had charred marks and scratches on their faces, they remained dead silent as tensions grew. Mecha and Tropy broke out of their hold and took two steps back, plotting their next move, just as this was happening, Coco and Cortex's bickering was still ongoing...

"If you think this tiny team you have here will make any difference, Cortex, then I'll let you proceed. Just be warned it may result in me laughing, a lot", Coco taunted. Her hands were in her pockets, and her hands, which could be seen outlined, seemed to be moving slightly.

Cortex, who was about to retort, noticed this movement. "What're you doing?".

Coco shrugged innocently, "What? I'm not doing anything".

Cortex began to descend slowly toward her, "Oh, no, don't go stalling, what're you hiding...". As he almost came face to face with one of his mortal enemies, Crash suddenly slid along the dirt, and came to a halt in between them. His eyes locked on Cortex's. Surprisingly Neo didn't wince, he stayed hovering but pressed his forehead against his own creation's, "It's about time you showed up, old friend. You're the reason we're here, and I guarantee, you will be the reason we win".

"Crash!", Jill called out, she stood where the trees once laid, now mostly stumps, everyone took notice of the newcomer.

Cortex snickered softly, and it grew into a booming cackle, "Friends, of course, a new one I might add. You seem out of your place here, dear, we're handling some prolonged business".

Jill clenched her teeth, "I remember you all too well". Cortex raised an eyebrow, curious, what was she going to drivel on about? "You took no shame in spreading your horrific army across our island, you destroyed our locales, and we're only now just rebuilding... You have hurt so many, you didn't stop to think what was on the other side of those robots and mooks".

This didn't phase Neo at all, he just spoke up, "We did take our time claiming Middle Island, if that's what you're referring to. But I can't remember who you are, so don't be a pest, move along like you must've done, when we took Middle Island". Jill shook uncontrollably, Cortex noticed this, "Ahh, good, we've got some fire in this one. Easy to aggrevate".

Everyone was here, except for Crunch, and no one knew where he was right now, but one thing was for sure is everyone felt the adrenaline of the battle that would ensue. There and then, everyone began to act at the same time, moving into action.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Well, this took its time. I had some very serious and unexpected surgery a couple months ago and have been spending most of my time catching up with coursework. Much as I wanted to work on this, time wasn't on my side. Grateful to anyone still reading. With what's going on with the world right now in addition, hopefully I should have more spare time to upload more than five chapters a year. Forgive me once more.**

* * *

Crunch sat down, currently exhausted from his training, he slumped up against a darkened tree that towered over the field, providing a bit of shade to relax under. Naturally, he was panting slightly, sweat careening down his body, however what was odd was every time he exhaled, he heard what sounded like something akin to an explosion. He stopped briefly and kept hearing the booming blasts echo in the distance, "That can't be good...", he growled. Standing up, he narrowed his eyes, over the green leafy horizon were a few dust clouds protruding out from the shrubbery and fading away quietly. "This is getting ridiculous", he scoffed, slowly scaling down the cliff he had scaled a while ago, "One attack after another, I am gettin' so sick of this. Just don't have too much fun without me, guys".

* * *

Coco suddenly landed on her back, sitting up and rubbing the area affected slightly, her left hand still hidden in her pocket. Crash appeared just in front of her, skidding a tad, then leapt toward his adversary, Dr Cortex. Neo was keeping his prey at bay by lobbing countless mines in their general vicinity, each one beeping a tad much like TNT, and soon following with an average sized explosion. One misstep and Crash would be nothing but a pair of shoes and eyeballs. "Putrid pest, why can't you just become a pile of smouldering ash?", Cortex asked, he began to toss a few out in a zig-zag pattern, which Crash thankfully caught onto. As such, he hopped left, right, left, right, and was advancing quick.

Cortex did a slightly girly scream before Crash front flipped toward him and spun him clean off of his trusty board. Cortex hit the ground a few times before he ended up laying down, facing away from Crash. The bandicoot slowly walked over to his old enemy, going to check if that was enough to take him out of this conflict. Cortex suddenly turned around and fired a blast from his crimson ray-gun. The high-pitched green bolt zoomed at Crash, and skimmed the right of his ribcage, his orange fur now singed. Crash looked at his body then snapped his eyes back to Cortex, who had a sickened smirk strewn across his face, spinning his ray-gun in his left hand in an almost western fashion.

Just behind them, Aku Aku and Uka Uka were firing various coloured lasers at each other, funnily enough all of them were just colliding and sparking into a small blast, they couldn't land a hit on each other. But if any of them were to stop trying, they'd regret it. "Enough of this futile effort, brother!", Uka Uka bellowed, "If I must, I will eradicate you, and you're filthy rodent family, if it means total world conquest!". Once he made this claim, he generated a large red energy ball and sent it toward his twin. It arced slightly up like a grenade, Aku Aku briskly evaded to the left. The blast leaving a small crater in its place, Uka Uka growled, "I hate wasting energy, especially when a troublesome little weakling like you won't just lay down and die!".

Aku Aku sighed, "If this is our last confrontation, which I fear it is not, then I must oblige and try my hardest, it is a shame we ended up like this...".

Uka Uka gritted his teeth tight like a vice, "Don't try that on me, I know full well you wasted your potential and became the pathetic 'guardian' you are today". The two resumed their conflict in the distance, as N Tropy came into view in the foreground, backing off slowly and sending an assortment of his metallic flying orbs at his enemy, Mecha. The pace of the shots was no faster than when Crash fought N Tropy years back, as a result, Mecha side-stepped a couple of them, and punched the last one into pieces.

Tropy growled and leapt toward Mecha, as his strike was blocked by Mecha holding her forearms up, he started to push her back slightly. His anger and nerves made his adrenaline rush exceed the strength of the robot. Mecha's feet were digging into the soil and making two small trenches in the ground, like a trail, as Trophy took step after step, pushing her back harder and further. Coco watched this in a panic, "C'mon...", she muttered, seeing the coast was clear and Cortex couldn't blast her, she pulled out a small pink remote, adorned with a diddy blue screen and various buttons to the right side of the screen.

Jill watched Mecha and Tropy pushing past her, "Is that a robot? And a clock... Guy?", she asked with genuine confusion. "I have no idea what the Hell is going on here. But if Cortex is here, I can't imagine it's anything peachy", she concluded. She locked eyes with Coco, "Co! You need any help?!" she hollered.

Coco looked panicked, "J-Jill? You really shouldn't be here! It's way too dangerous!". Coco knew what was also important was to not let her beloved creation leave the world just as quick as she came. Coco began to type with her right hand, various scripts and code were being executed. Coco stared down the way ahead of her, where Tropy had legitimately pushed Mecha out to the beach, through the opening of trees left by him earlier. Tropy suddenly swiped left, throwing Mecha off balance, she couldn't calculate what to do right now. Tropy then flung his tuning fork upwards at her, right in the visor, Mecha launched a few feet upwards, still confused on how to handle this situation. Finally, Tropy grabbed her right ankle, and with major force, he screamed as he tugged her back down into the ground, a large sandy dust cloud protruding from the impact.

Coco reactively shrieked, she began to sweat more, this was unprecedented. Jill had put two and two together and concluded that her pals were under attack, and naturally she was gonna have something to say about it. Upon seeing Crash and Cortex scuffling over Cortex's ray-gun, she rolled up her metaphorical sleeves and began to walk over. She had taken a few steps and not noticed one of Cortex's mines bobbing up and down, ready to fry anyone who would dare to contact it. Coco glanced up, her control now showing a progress bar nearly full. Jill's foot was right above the mine, Coco couldn't even think of anything to say, her mind ran a mile a minute but couldn't come out with anything.

"Jill!", Coco yelped, Jill didn't even peer down, she was sent flying to the right after a large orange detonation. From Jill's perspective she was laying on her side, she saw that Coco was kneeling beside her, "Thank goodness, you really need to check your surroundings! We're in a huge fight here!", she said with concern, and a little shakiness in her voice. Coco glanced to Jill's left, "Good catch as always, I'll be right back", she added and ran toward where Tropy and Mecha were. Jill leaned her head to the left, her skull still echoing white noise from the blast. Ami was also knelt beside Jill, but was leaning on her left knee panting, she gave Jill a soft smile, which Jill returned.

Coco hopped over a few of the stumps and witnessed Mecha laying in the sand, practically making an outline, she was dead flat but twitching. Coco saw the word 'Activate' appear in all caps, without delay she slammed the command with her index finger. As Tropy slowly and firmly wrapped his cold steel fingers around Mecha's equally chilled throat, she began to whir and hum.

"What now", Tropy spat out.

Mecha grabbed Tropy's hands with hers, "Initiating, Overdrive alpha". She tightened her grasp, Tropy winced slightly as the backs of his hands were slightly dented. He let go with such force and threw his arms open, the push of the action got Mecha off of him for now. "You are an incredible adversary, Tropy, but you have not prepared for the rear kicking that will ensue", Mecha claimed, pulling herself up.

Tropy stroked his finely trimmed beard slowly, "You're not much are you? I mean in terms of how you're put together. I heard you're strong, but from what you just said I'd have to guess you're some shoddy test build". He then spread his feet apart and folded his arms, tilting his head slightly upwards, "You are far from being the perfect weapon, like myself!".

* * *

Ami sat next to Jill, regaining her composure, "You... Alright?". Her pauses due to taking breaths and recover from her mad dash she just made.

Jill, who was completely ok, stood up to help Ami back to her feet, "Of course I'm ok, you just saved my life. I'm sorry if I caused a hassle, just seeing someone who made part of your life terrible sets off certain emotions y'know?".

Ami, with support from Jill, was able to stand back up and recover rather quick, "I understand, but that doesn't excuse how reckless you just were, you could've gotten yourself killed, Jill". Jill nodded silently, "Anyhow", Ami continued, our pals here seem in trouble, and despite you're one of my students and should be escorted back to the academy... We're here now let's help in any way we can".

Jill rubbed the back of her head, "I suppose so, but what do we do? Whilst we've been jabbering these fights are ongoing and ain't likely to stop soon".

Ami peered at Crash, "Go help him, I'll see what I can do about...", she darted her eyes out to the beach, where it seemed that Coco had things under control, the only other confrontation was Aku Aku and Uka Uka. "That", she said pointing at the twins bickering currently.

"Woah, wait", Jill began, "You wanna get in between freaky mask guy and I wanna guess, his brother? Ami, I don't even know how those two functions, let alone fight! It could be all this mystical crap".

"I gave you instructions, Jill, go", Ami shut her down and pushed her aside gently, running toward the twin's scuffle. "Aku Aku! Is there anything I can do to help?", Ami asked, looking across the way to her opponent.

Aku Aku stared in shock, "You cannot possibly be serious Ami. He is far too dangerous! You'll get yourself killed". A red energy blast whizzed through the gap between them, followed by Uka Uka's cackling.

Ami frowned, "I'm not hearing a no".

Aku Aku was in disbelief, "I just warned-". Ami ran away from Aku Aku, scampering behind the Bandicoot's hut. "What are you planning?", he muttered to himself, wherein another shot flew by him. "Now you're just being rude, brother...", he scolded, laying his own suppressing fire back.

* * *

Crash and Cortex had tugged back and forth on the ray-gun all the way to the seafront, "You meddling bandicoot, let go!", he hollered, quickly thrusting both of his arms down to the left, Crash got pulled with the motion, to which Cortex went to backhand his mortal enemy, but all it did was lightly slap Crash on the cheek. There was an awkward silence between the two, including Crash rubbing the back of his head and Cortex clearing his throat a bit loudly. Crash then spun aggressively as Cortex screeched, he held on for dear life, Crash then came to a stop raising the gun in glorious victory. Except it wasn't supposed to have two yellow gloves latched onto it, he peeked down and saw Cortex slightly heave then shake his head, "Let's see if this will deter you..." he growled.

Cortex activated his backup rocket boots, usually deployed if he needed a quick escape, and began to rise slightly, he curled his legs slightly into his body, which meant Crash had to bail or get burned severely. Cortex slowly caressed his ray-gun and turned a dial on the side showing various icons which represented firing modes, after scanning a couple he set it to vaporise.

"Cortex!", a shrill voice called out, Cortex looked down, to see Jill stood by Crash's side, a fist raised and clenched tightly.

"Ah, you're still here, why don't you mind your own business? You've got the memorability of a side-character", Cortex chuckled.

"I see you still have no clue who I am, the homes that you ruined in your conquest years back, the lives you ended with your industrial march!", Jill screamed, she found herself shaking again.

Cortex took note of this, "Intimidated? That doesn't surprise me". He slowly aimed his right arm down toward his enemies, "Any last requests?".

Jill regained her composure, "What? You're gonna kill us both in one shot? You talk all this high and mighty crap, but haven't ALL of your plans failed?", she snickered along with Crash. This caused Cortex to demonstrate by firing a bolt to his left, which was shockingly obtuse, and left a large scorch where some trees did lay. This left the two actually looking like deer in headlights. "Let's run for it", she whispered to Crash, who subtly nodded. On Jill's mark, she quickly sidestepped into a small jog, and turned to see Crash wasn't following suit. Crash tried to run to his right, but slipped slightly and knelt on one knee, the pain coming from his ribs. "Crash!", she ran back to him and looked closely at his wound.

Upon examining the area, it seemed that earlier, when Cortex seemingly skimmed him, the adrenaline of the fight had made Crash slightly forget the damage that was being inflicted onto his body. There was a severe burn on his skin, which was pulsating his nerves and pain receptors. Crash held the afflicted area and grunted softly, his skin felt it was tightening more and more, he stared back at Cortex, who seemed ecstatic, "I actually hit you? Ha!".

He didn't have time to correct how pathetic that sounded, he wrapped his index finger on the trigger and then jolted it into his hand, firing a red bolt at shocking speed toward Crash and Jill. Jill hoisted Crash by the back of his legs and supported his back, stumbling and turning around toward the hut. The shot caused a decent crater to be left behind, but this wasn't what the mad doctor wanted to see. "You rotten pests just keep clawing at a way to survive. I have to admire that somewhat", he said whilst pulling out something from behind him. "See if your luck continues against a maze of mines!", with that exclamation, a cluster of his mines landed in front of Jill's feet, it felt like de ja vu.

"Oh sh-!" Jill squeezed out before she hopped over one, and began to stagger a bit to the left, almost tripping on another, but using the last moment to push herself higher, she tried her best to avoid the blinking bombs. She was doing fine, however Cortex had been lining up her path this whole time, and aimed ahead, firing a small green charge past her head. "Hey! Watch it!", she barked, turning her head to Cortex, Crash grabbed her head and turned it back around. The resulting explosion caused her to dig her heels into the ground in a panic. Yet she had built so much speed she had to go left, right and left to rapidly slow down. It was no use, the detonation came closer, in what seemed like milliseconds, Crash hopped out of Jill's arms and swapped positions, grabbing her and using the last ounce of his strength to double jump as high as he could over the explosion.

Time seemed to flow back to real time and Crash landed on his feet but yelped in pain, holding his side, Jill was unintentionally thrown ahead, she rolled forward and was able to sit up, "How did you do that?", she pondered.

Cortex grabbed the two sides of the back of his hair, tugging on them violently, "Graaah! Why is it every little thing must be subsided with absolute nonsense!", he quickly drew his gun and aimed right at the two, "I won't miss this shot".

Jill tried to crawl over to the fallen hero, but found herself wincing slightly, she glanced at her feet behind her and could feel her left ankle aching, potentially sprained. As she held his head up with her left hand, Cortex clicked the trigger. Jill screamed and her vision was nothing but crimson.

...

For a split second, she then opened her eyes and used her right hand to touch the soft and warm soil beneath her, she wasn't obliterated? She glanced up and saw a huge burly figure standing in front of her and Crash, his jagged ears twitching slightly. Jill coughed, "Crunch?". Crunch turned and gave a small thumbs up, which Crash returned with a pained smile. Crash laid his head back and looked at the sky, where the ray bolt was flying, further, further, gone. Crunch had used his gauntlet to deflect it just in the nick of time.

This was evidenced by said arm glowing orange, the heat permeating off of the surface. Cortex hummed, "I knew giving you that would bite me in the back at some point...".

Crunch hopped in place a couple times, taking a boxer stance, "How about we fight mano-e-mano, Cortex?".

Cortex laughed heartily, "Please, you think if I had the build for that I'd have become a mad scientist? No chance! Let's spruce this up, since you've tagged in, my boy".

Crunch growled instinctively, "I'm not your boy...".

Cortex scoffed, "Right, since you're not an actual person, just a failed experiment".

As the two began to bicker, Jill pulled Crash along slowly, feeling her ankle throb and wincing, she wanted to escort him to safety ASAP. But where could they go? The hut was a bit far off. Would she have enough time to take momentary shelter?

* * *

Behind said hut, Ami poked her head out, an energy bolt brushing past her hair and taking out a chunk of the house with it. Uka Uka was having to juggle two enemies at the same time. Aku Aku fired a shot and they both collided again, a moment of silence passed. "It pains me to this day that we're still playing these old games, brother", Aku Aku lamented, looking genuinely upset.

Uka Uka masked any sense of guilt with raw anger. "Like I said, it wouldn't have ended like this if you embraced what you had!".

Aku Aku sighed, his feathers dipping slightly to add to it, "A world like that is not one I wish to partake in". Ami breathed slowly pressed up against the wall, then counted quietly to herself.

Uka Uka roared with laughter, "Well then, allow me to make that wish come tru-". The villainous hunk of wood hadn't heard the footsteps coming toward him as he attempted to taunt his brother.

The mighty Uka Uka had just been left-hooked so hard from the side, that the impact held in place for a few seconds, followed by hhim being sent whizzing away like a speeding bullet, by Ami Bandicoot. "WHAM!", she cheered, Aku Aku floated silently in pure shock... And amazement.

"I had no idea you had such power behind you, Ami!" Aku Aku praised, "If I had hands I'd be clapping right now!".

Uka Uka took the hit, but he staggered slightly as he flew back up, "Y-you meddlesome little runt, thinking you can law your filthy paws on me!". He got pelted by one of Aku's shots which sent him back further, his paintjob and some of his wooden panelling scuffed. They actually did damage. Uka Uka looked at them both for a moment, a smug smirk on Ami's face, fists raised. Aku on the other hand looked sombre to be doing this in the first place.

"I won't be decieved a second time, I, am the almighty UKA UKA!", he exclaimed, glowing a searing red colour.

Meanwhile, Cortex had overcharged his ray gun to 110%, just charging the shot he was preparing was making the blaster shake violently, "I have had enough, of you meddling bandicoots, being one step ahead of us!". His shot launched, but Crunch didn't anticipate a beam as opposed to a bolt. He had held out his gauntlet to catch it, small parts of the beam were dispersing, slicing off various parts of shrubbery and trees surrounding him. He closed his eyes, broke a sweat, and glanced behind him at Jill and Crash.

Cortex had a slick grin on his face, "What can you do now?! You can't redirect the beam anywhere! To your left is your precious egghead sister and her clanky contraption, to your right is your beloved home! All you can do is submit!".

Cortex followed his claim with laughter, Crunch growled and peered down, a small metal plate sat by his feet, most likely from Mecha's scrap just now. He struggled to keep his strength against the oppressive laser, however, he saw an orange hand adorned with a brown biker glove just grab it, and pull it behind Crunch. Crash held onto the plate, assuming he should toss it at his arch-nemesis.

But Jill quickly stopped him, "Hold up, this is exactly the kind of situation a badass hero would be in, like a struggle, is there any kind of way we could outplay him here?". She looked over to the hut and noticed that the windows were situated slightly more toward the door. Due to the curved nature of the house, this gave Jill an idea, so she whispered into Crash's ear, and gave Crunch a firm nod.

Crunch caught on as he saw Crash's arm wind up, he turned back to Cortex, who shockingly was laughing so hard he had his eyes closed, a grave mistake.

"You're a vile guy...", Crunch spoke up.

Cortex halted, "What did you say? Vile? Not bad, I like it".

"Lemme rephrase then", Crunch muttered, "You're PATHETIC!". Upon saying this he leant his body to the left and threw his palm to the right.

"Ha!", Cortex jeered, "You really are a backwards family, you chose to destroy your little shelter and couldn't even counter my attack!".

"Check again, jackass!", Jill shouted, standing up slowly and struggling to stay up. Cortex played along and glanced over; his pupils went tiny upon realisation. At some point, one of his enemies had thrown some sort of metal shell and it had landed inside the windowsill of the hut. The metal had cut right into the wood and was firmly in place, unfortunately Tropy's aggressive strikes had caused the plate in question to be partially dented, thus the laser beam Cortex had shot was now aiming right for him! In a matter of seconds, Cortex was down for the count, charred to boot.

Crash, Crunch and Jill all cheered, their fight was done. Behind them, Uka Uka was seething and staring at the two who opposed him, by getting so worked up, a small part of his mask face chipped off from the top of his head. Both the Aku Uka twins noticed this, Uka Uka stopped quickly, "Curses... Who would've thought I'd be crippled by a rodent so easily".

Aku floated over slowly, "Brother, are you-".

"Back off!", Uka warned, leaving his brother speechless. A small breeze being the only sound that could be heard now, there was nothing either had to say to each other, this was just how it was between them now. Uka Uka then spoke up, "I'll take my leave, consider yourselves lucky...".

With that, Uka Uka drifted off over to where Cortex lay, presumably to pick him up and depart. Ami passed by him and stopped beside Aku Aku, she folded her arms, "You alright?". Aku didn't respond, leaving Ami to sigh softly.

* * *

The sand beneath them was soft and serene, but their emotions couldn't be further from opposite.

Tropy held out his right palm, and using magnetic force, pulled his tuning fork to him. "Whatever tricks you pull now won't make a difference", he stated with sheer confidence. Mecha clenched her fists and dashed toward Tropy, who suddenly went from cocky to shocked, "She's so agile-!". Mecha clasped her hands together, and turned her body to the right slightly, striking Tropy with her left elbow. The speed and intensity combined with the sudden change in the fight's pace made this blow feel doubly so on Tropy's stomach. It honestly felt like he had been rammed with that of a vehicle speeding directly into his gut.

Coco wiped a small bit of sweat off of her forehead, "Ok, it can be executed at least...".

Tropy let out a dry cough, he peered down to Mecha, still holding her stance. As he was about to move and deliver a retaliating strike, Mecha unthreaded her hands, pushing her left elbow ever so slightly into where she just struck. This subtle motion caused Tropy to tense up expecting another hit there, but in actuality she had set him up, rotating her left forearm, hand balled into a fist, 90 degrees. She thwacked his face with the rear of her left hand and proceeded to jump slightly and punch him with her right hand right after but slightly downward.

It all happened so fast, _"How could this be?!"_ , Tropy thought to himself, the front of his body now implanted in the sand, not too dissimilar his enemy moments ago. _"This doesn't make sense, how could she become that quick without a gimmick, if even I require one. Then, the only way she could change her battle efficiency so suddenly is if..."_ , he pushed himself up. Tropy glanced to his right and saw Coco, tinkering with her remote, tongue sticking out slightly as she thought on the spot. _"Still... There's no way a cheap tin toy like this metal rat could strike me with such power and not receive any-"_ , Tropy was grabbed by the back of his neck, he was almost limp in Mecha's grasp. However, he could see that her left elbow lacked its outer shell, she had shattered part of her body just to make a dent on him. Tropy smirked, "I see, so that's how it works is it?".

Mecha narrowed her eyes, she flung her right arm back, knocking Tropy onto his back, _"A glass-cannon, how fascinating"_. Mecha stood facing him a few feet away, feet apart, she began to walk slowly toward him, Coco also slightly walked forward to observe clearly, she was shaking slightly. Tropy suddenly sat up with his hands raised, "I concede".

Coco stopped in her tracks, and deactivated Mecha's overdrive, causing her robotic twin to seem slightly dazed, she then fell to her knees as steam exerted from various parts of her chest and head. "You admit defeat?" Mecha asked, with malice still laying under her voice. Tropy nodded firmly, and he seemed to be telling the truth, he struggled to get up, even staggering slightly...

Coco scuttled to her creation, lifting it up to its feet, "You ok?".

"Yes, mistress".

Tropy narrowed his eyes as he walked past them both. They were both distracted, he could wipe them both out right now. He went to reach for his chest clock, for an easy kill, but heard Uka Uka call for him. Odd, Tropy thought, why now would his master want them to pull out?

 **That Evening**

The evildoers had left briskly and didn't stay for a moment longer. Everyone was inside the Bandicoot's hut, the main room to be precise. Crash lay by the fireplace, a blue blanket around him, he held his wound and quietly huffed to himself. To his right was Jill, sat on a red wooden chair by a window, in between them both was Crunch, sat on a small log that was in front of the fireplace. Crash was facing the fire, whilst the other two were making small talk, "Are you sure you're gonna be alright?" Crunch asked, gently checking Jill's ankle.

"I'll be fine, thank you...", she answered, slightly twitching her leg at the touch. "How about you back there though?! The way you handled that beam was so badass!".

"Oh, it was nothing, you helped my lil bro out there, give yourself credit", Crunch answered with a grin. Both he and Jill found themselves getting slightly more comfortable chatting to one another over the heroic actions each of them took today.

By the front door, to the left of Jill, was Ami, leaning by the doorframe, arms folded, and legs crossed slightly. She had a small smile, glad that her student and old friends were alright, safe and sound, she stood up properly and walked out toward the kitchen, through there and out to the back door. The door was the same kind of red the rest of the hut had, with a small window in the top middle of it. Ami went past the small room where Aku slept, and found herself at the back garden, an area she snuck around earlier when confronting Uka Uka. She quietly opened the door, went outside, and closed the door shut with a small squeak.

Ami sat down on the stone step by her feet. She pulled out a small golden wumpa fruit shaped locket and opened it. Inside was a picture of a younger Ami, holding a pose like she was flexing her muscles, along with four other young female bandicoots who were in various other poses. They seemed to be around pre-teen age. "Just like the old days, huh?", she choked out, holding back a few tears. Ami sat by herself, seemingly talking to the small photo in her palms. The emotions in the hut tonight were mixed all around.

Coco sat in the garage, on a small worn stool, she checked Mecha from top to bottom. Mecha was currently facing away from Coco, who spoke up, "Can't believe the damage he did to you".

Mecha turned her head, "Did I fail you, Mistress?".

"No, of course not, don't be silly", she answered firmly, "Turn", she commanded, and Mecha did so. Coco stood up and held Mecha's head, peering around it to check any other inflictions. "I shouldn't have made you take all the heat is all. And the injuries my brothers have sustained lately. I can't help but feel I'm not pulling my own weight".

A brief pause fell between them, Mecha then replied, "Apologies if I am misreading the situation, but you constructed me all by yourself, did you not?". Coco hesitated to nod, Mecha continued, "And I was designed to help with these confrontations and assist in day to day life around our home. Correct?".

"That is correct...", Coco muttered, grabbing a screwdriver and putting the left side of Mecha's visor firmly back into place.

"Then forgive me, Mistress, if I seem rude, but you are being quite silly, all the work you put into me must be 'paying off', as I heard brother Crunch say the other day", Mecha concluded.

Coco grinned, "You know, when I designed you in my image, I didn't expect you to have some smart-ass moments too".

"Smart? Ass? Define", Mecha quizzed. Outside the garage door, Coco could be heard laughing, "What is so humorous?", Mecha added, which made Coco's chuckles stronger.

Aku Aku had been staring out to sea this whole time. The only question in his head was _why?_ Why did he and his brother have to keep up this never-ending cycle? How did his enemies seem to be getting stronger? And most of all, why couldn't he protect his children more?

* * *

Nina had been working for hours in secret on her Uncle's notes, she was quite proud of herself. She wiped her forehead and sighed with relief, "This'll get me back into their good books for sure! With this, we can call upon allies even stronger than the ones we have in our own dimension!". After making this claim, she heard someone storming through the castle, she hid the notes under her bed and jogged to her door, prying it open slightly to allow her right eye to see into the hall. All she could see was her Uncle's old lab was open, a shadow similar to his sifting through some books. _"Odd"_ she thought, _"Now of all times he comes up here to scan through his old work?"_.

Suddenly he started throwing the books around the room, from what Nina could make out. One of them flung out into the hallway in front of her. Cortex could be heard cursing under his breath, he was clearly stressed with whatever happened today. "Nothing right, nothing ever right, never EVER done right!", he kept saying. Nina turned around and glanced at her bed, and quickly went to retrieve her notes.

Cortex walked out of the room, agitated and shaking, he heard footsteps getting closer, he rotated around and saw Nina stood before him. "You should be in your room, Nina. I don't have time for any grovelling right now", he said, trying to look tough and confident in front of his family. Nina looked down at the red book briefly, then back at her uncle, who was staring at her. She then handed her notes over to Neo. "What is this?", he pondered, flipping through the pages. "You went through my work? I knew there was something missing when I *ahem* checked through that room".

Nina prepared for a scolding, Neo then hummed, "You took my work, and improved on it? Nina! My girl!" he exclaimed, hugging her. This came as a big surprise, but Nina hugged back.

"I-is it ok?", she asked.

"Ok?! With this, our army can cross worlds far beyond even ours!", Neo seemed overjoyed with this.

Nina then had a thought come to mind, "Uncle, I assume this means I'm ungrounded?". Cortex nodded whilst reading the various pages, "Great, I'm gonna go for a walk", Nina finished, leaving her uncle to finish off the viewing of the schematics. The title saying 'Psychetron 2.0'.

Nina descended down many flights of the decrepit lair, she passed by a few potoroos lugging supplies up from their den, one of the slimmer ones was heckling the others, "Pick up the slack, boys, we ain't got long!".

She had no idea what they were doing, her current goal was set on this so called 'dungeon' she heard about. In time, she had descended so far it was hard to make out where she was. In fact, she had gone so far down the lighting was incredibly poor. She pulled out a purple lighter engraved with a lower case 'n' on it. She struck the flint and made it emit a little flare, just enough for her to make sense of where she was. "I can't believe I never went this far down before, but with all the plots we've made over the years and aiming for world domination. I guess I got distracted", she told herself. Nina circled around the room and found a large, rotting wooden door with a small metal slit window near the top of it.

She raised her right hand slowly and knocked three times.

* * *

Back at the Bandicoot's hut, everyone had gathered in the main room, barring Mecha who was resting, and Ami sat out back. Aku Aku spoke up, "Well, with how things have been today I feel we'd best get some well-earned rest, you all did me proud out there". He looked over to Jill, "Do you wish to stay here for the night, Jill? You are hardly in shape to make it home right now. It has been a long day".

"Oh, no, I couldn't", Jill began, trying to be modest and not come off selfish.

"Nonsense", Aku responded, "You are more than welcome to crash the night here".

"Can't have a good pal out there strugglin'", Crunch added. Jill smiled, seeming grateful.

"Come here", Coco ordered, putting one of Jill's arms over her shoulder, "You can sleep in my room, girl's night". Crunch, being incredibly taller than Jill, simply grabbed her other hand to support, and they walked slowly to Coco's room down the hall.

Aku Aku was relieved everyone appeared to be ok after the mess that was the afternoon. "Oh, that reminds me", he spoke to himself. Soon as he turned to where Ami was, he saw she was coming in from outside. He hadn't disturbed her as Coco noted to him, she seemed to want to be by herself. "Ami, I trust you will follow Jill in staying here tonight? I doubt any ships would be running at this time to get you back to Middle Island".

Ami put her hands on her hips, "Sure thing!", her energy suddenly back, "Where am I sleeping?".

Whilst the others got organised, with Crunch and Coco fetching various pillows and blankets in the background, Crash sat sombrely staring at the small ember in front of him. He felt like he let so many people down this afternoon and put others in danger where it could've been avoided. But this didn't bring him down, he felt a newfound strength to keep pushing on, this new course he was going to undertake would surely help that. He steadily stood himself up, holding his side, it was aching quite bad. But in his mind, some good old-fashioned rest would easily fix him up.

Crash wandered to his room, he passed by Coco's room, where behind the door he could hear the three girls chattering and giggling. He put his hand on the door, a way of assuring himself everything was ok with his younger sister. He scanned over to Crunch's door, and was affirmative his older brother was fine, he was actually quite proud of Crunch today. He did a stellar job saving his and Jill's skin. A minute later and Crash 'crashed' onto his bed, he laid on his back like he usually did, and within seconds, was adrift into the world of slumber.

* * *

 ***click clack click clack***

"Is it close to completion?".

"N-no, I still need to calibrate all sorts to even get this stable. It won't work overnight..."

"Need I remind you, I brought you into this circle of ours with the sole intention of making my dream a reality. Now if you wish to see it crumble, you're going the right way about it".

"It's not my intention, but you can't rush something like this".

"Maybe I should've employed someone with a more upbeat work ethic, that blonde bandicoot seems a better tool for this than you. If only we could get a hold of her".

"Well, you can't. Just hold on a little longer, it'll all be worth it, then can I go?".

"I've waited for years, so sure, I'll play along a little longer. Because the payoff is going to be so worth it. Do not disappoint me".


	7. Chapter 7

Nina had just knocked on the foreboding door before her, did this place lead to a dungeon? A place where her uncle's failures were locked up, starved, and tortured to be taught a lesson? Nothing, there wasn't a peep coming from behind said door, nor around Nina. She caught herself gulping slightly, then stomping her right foot, "No. A Cortex never gives in", she reminded herself. So, she brayed on the door once more. Still nothing. She turned around, and scoffed to herself, obviously the brat girls were just making up more silly rumours. It was just like them to fabricate stories whilst people were down.

As Nina began to walk to the staircase and ascend back to her room, the entrance to the room creaked open very sluggishly. The door sounded as if it had lived through centuries it was that worn down. Nina turned hesitated and turned around to face the room once more. _"Do I dare?",_ she thought to herself. If this room really was what she feared it was, then her perception of her stern, yet loving uncle was about to be shattered, broken beyond belief. But if she were wrong, if all these rumours were incorrect, then she would be relieved, her nerves would be settled. A tough call to make, but Nina concluded, that entering here was better than pondering and assuming. Better to see the truth first-hand, than to revel in potential lies.

Upon entering, the first and only thing Nina immediately took notice of was the lacking presence of anyone. There were cells, many, lined as far as she could see before a black fog ate them up. Her legs almost felt like pure stone, much like being caught in a Medusa stare, she felt incapable of moving a muscle. She reaffirmed herself like before and trudged further in. The rattles of boxes and chatter from Pinstripe's crew had dampened. Now, the only sounds ringing through her ears being that of her boots, thudding in the hallway, the small flame in her hands whistling, and the ever so subtle droplets splashing and forming small puddles further into the area.

Nina came to a fork in her path, both stretching far as her eyes could make out. First empty cells and now more pathways that could lead to who knows where. This wasn't right. Suddenly a group of gentle footsteps sounded like they were approaching. Nina knew that no matter what reason, she shouldn't be down here. she hopped to her right and hugged her back to the wall, she was practically hidden barring her lighter was still lit. She promptly flicked it shut and waited, a few seconds passed and nothing. "What the-?", she quizzed before hearing the door she used to get in here, open. She tightened up and went back into the stone slabbed wall behind her.

"I told you not to forget anything", a snarky voice belittled someone.

"I didn't even wanna do this stupid task anyway!", another responded.

Nina narrowed her eyes, _"Brat girls? Here? What has uncle got our 'workforce' doing?",_ she pondered. However, she didn't have time to think, they were headed her way, and who knew which path they intended to take? They had a torch on hand, so were clearly prepped for here. One of them seemed to have something else in both her hands but it was hard to make out from such a poor angle, and the distance was becoming ever shorter. Nina rolled her eyes, _"Screw it, if lady luck isn't on my side I'll just get caught, I have some questions to ask Uncle already"._

Nina closed her eyes as the two girls reached her position, and then started to get quieter, as it would happen, they were going in the opposite direction to where Nina was currently. Instinctively without thinking, she let out a small sigh of relief. This caused both Brat girls to suddenly stop and turn. "Who's there?", the one with a torch asked, all they could see was the other hallway, nothing else there. Nina slowed her breathing; her heart was admittedly accelerating in heartbeats. The more dominant Brat girl took one step toward Nina's position before being grabbed by her associate.

"Can we just deliver this first?", her friend asked, to which she sighed and nodded. The two waltzed away, Nina breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth for a few seconds. She watched the two minions walk a good way down the hallway and began to follow at a reasonable distance. She tried to strike her lighter silently, but it wouldn't even spark.

"No... No no no...", she muttered, flicking the flint more and more.

Although, she wasn't keeping track of one chunk of the footing beneath her, and tripped, making a loud thud and scrape sound with her hands. The two underlings rotated around quickly, "HEY!", they shouted, Nina had already bolted back toward the entrance. As the Brat girls ran to Nina's slip up, she was already many paces away. "Who was snooping down here?", the torch carrying Brat girl asked aloud. "Whatever, quick, we don't wanna miss out on gossip night" she added.

The walls, lights and ceiling were going by like coloured streaks to Nina, her heart beating faster than she could've imagined, did they spot her? Was she onto something? What could be down there that has to be kept in secrecy so much? Was it as the rumours seemed? She didn't have time to ponder these questions she just had to get out of the area before anything could go wrong. Nina darted up each set of stairs, she shoved past two Brat girls passing by, causing them to drop a few supplies, and found herself at the floor her room was at. _"Almost out",_ she assured herself, but she didn't expect the end of her adrenaline rushed dash to be a red pinstriped suit, she collided with it and fell onto her backside. "Ach, hey watch it!", she scolded, clenching her right fist.

Pinstripe also sat up, "Jeez, you're lucky you're who I was searchin' for, not many people get to hit me and walk away from it", he claimed, adjusting and dusting off his attire. He held his hand out, "C'mon".

"Looking? For me?", Nina asked, incredibly puzzled by the thought.

Pinstripe helped her up, "Yeah, me and my boys are out. I'm afraid. Things aren't workin' out with us and the Commandos". He pulled out a small cigarette and lighter, lit up and took an inhale. "It's nothing personal, with you anyway, I just wanted to make sure you knew what was up".

Nina paused, "Ok but, why me? What have we ever done together?".

Pinstripe exhaled the smoke slowly, causing Nina to cough slightly, "We've been on our fair share of missions these past few years. You're right, we don't really know each other, but I have seen you and your work, you're a good kid. I see somethin' in you that I don't with your snivelling uncle...".

This caused Nina's eyes to widen, "What do you mean? What happened? Is it about", she looked down the corridor behind her, "Down there?", she inquired, pointing downwards.

Pinstripe looked at her like she was mad, "I have no idea what you're talkin' about, Nina. The rooms below our den were abandoned years ago, I don't remember ANYONE being down there. I ain't even bluffing". Could that be true? Nina knew what she saw down there wasn't some sort of hallucination... Pinstripe added, "Just make sure you're here for you, not for him. Don't be a sidekick if you can provide something else. Don't be like how I was". He left Nina silent, she took in every word, now thinking very deeply, Pinstripe ambled past her, "Anyhow, see you around if we do, we gotta get out of here before the new terms set in".

Nina snapped back to reality, "Terms?", turning briskly to face him, "What terms?".

He sighed, taking another inhale of smoke, "Turns out our dear old master doesn't like defectors. Since me and the boys are out, it means if we encounter you guys, it'll be a free-fire zone".

Nina couldn't believe what she was hearing, "What, a war?! We're already losing to those, those, do-gooders out there in that jungle, and you guys are tryna fight each other?!".

"Relax, kid", Pinstripe said, calm as still water, he exhaled and continued, "It's not a war, think of it more of a disbandment. It just means if we happen to come across you and the Commandos, it could get ugly, no different to just being civvies to you guys... Just tell the guys I don't want trouble".

Nina then thought of a relevant question, "You couldn't find them?".

Pinstripe dropped his cigarette and stood on his, twisting his foot to properly put it out, hands in his pockets, "Nah, now that you mention it. I couldn't find Tiny in his room or outside runnin' about, Dingo is usually with N Gin helping in the lab, even Ripper Roo, that annoyin' little thing. He wasn't by the balcony overlooking the waterfall". A moment of silence fell between them, "I don't know what's up but if you see 'em, just tell me we're cool with them, and you too, Nina. Our main problems are Cortex, Uka Uka, Tropy and N Gin".

This was getting too suspicious to be anything other than some sort of conspiracy. Nina asked one final thing, "They weren't for it?".

"Nope, but me and my guys already have a plan, those pr-uh, those idiots argued against it. The only way for us to leave is for it to be those circumstances, it's the way it has to be", Pinstripe finished, before slowly walking to the downward stairs.

"Oh, one more thing", he said in a hushed tone, Nina stared back, "One of my boys said he saw you had a thing for these", he claimed, tossing a lighter styled in the same way as his own suit. "Keep it, remember, we're square, see ya around, kid...".

Nina waved goodbye and looked at her new gift, she curled her fingers around it and encased it in her right palm. She entered her room, placing both lighters onto her windowsill and looking out to the night sky. "Don't be a sidekick...".

* * *

"How much longer?"

"Systems operational, but it can't be a good idea to use it without some testing"

"Testing? After waiting this whole time?"

"Well, yeah, it's not gotta be anything fancy, what would you have in mind?"

"I want something substantial, something new, something that would further my research"

"You have the funds to develop anything, including this, what on Earth could you possibly seek that could match that description? It'd have to be otherworldly".

"That's exactly what I'm talking about, my friend, move aside, I have something to claim".

* * *

The night went as quickly as it came. With the islands being graced by the sun's rays, this didn't last long though, as it became dark up above, with thick grey clouds clumping together in masses, no doubt rain would follow later that day.

Crunch was one of the first to rise, he made his bed and attempted to close his door properly, but to no avail. He soon gave up and headed to the lounge, where he was surprised by a package laying on the doormat, "Hello", he said, clasping his hands around the cardboard box adorned with an academy logo.

About half an hour passed, Ami walked into the main room along with Jill having an arm around Ami's shoulder. Ami had her typical attire on, whereas Jill seemed to have a different outfit on, namely a neon pink set of pajamas. "Coco's spare pyjamas were so cosy, Ami, you have NO idea! Look, they got little gears on them!", Jill exclaimed, pointing to various points on her body.

Ami rolled her eyes, "Believe me, I don't have an idea, because I was too lanky to fit into 'em".

Jill chuckled, "Bet you wish you were smaller hu-", Jill slipped, and Ami caught her with quick reflexes.

"Steady there, Jill", Ami warned, "Last thing we need is you slipping and bopping your head, about the only good thing left on ya right now". Jill playfully slapped Ami, causing a small golden item to be knocked out of Ami's pocket, it bounced three times before coming to a standstill on the floor. This went unnoticed as Ami walked Jill over to the chair, she occupied the previous night.

"Ah damn I just realised the time!", Jill panicked, "We need to be at school in like, ten minutes!". Jill attempted to wiggle herself free and make a dash to the academy. Ami held her firmly.

"You wanna go to school in your friend's pyjamas?", Ami asked confidently, "How about your ankle? No way, you need to rest up".

"And miss out on classes?!", Jill lamented, but deep down she knew that Ami was right.

"Is it so much to ask that you take it easy for a couple days? You'll have company here, what with the others not at the academy yet", Ami assured Jill with a solid pat on the back.

The two heard an "Ahem" across the room, the two girls peered over to see Crunch in his new XXXL uniform, which thankfully wasn't too tight, like the other males, he had a white shirt, with a striped tie in the pattern of blue and yellow. His blazer was in his left hand and his trousers were also a deep navy blue, his shoes were kept the same, as it didn't violate the dress code.

"W-woah", Jill blurted out.

Ami folded her arms, "Lookin' good, Crunch, I can tell you're gonna have a leg up with our future classes".

"Ya think?", Crunch asked modestly, he lifted up his blazer, "Wearin' this just doesn't feel right, plus it wasn't tailored right, is that gonna be an issue?".

Before Ami could think about an answer, Coco walked into the room, she was transporting the borrowed blankets and such back to the storage room, wherein she saw Crunch's new attire. "It came?!", she threw the sheets up into the air and ran over to Crunch.

Crash, who had also just wandered over, got covered by the sheets returning back down, "Woah!", he exclaimed, causing him to flail stumble and trip over in the background.

"It sure did, here ya go, was hard to figure out which were mine", he joked, causing Coco to laugh with him, she quickly scampered back to her room, clothes in tow. Crash peered out from the pile of duvets and wondered what was going on. After Coco briskly changed and the group had a brief chat before deciding what to do today regarding Jill's injury. It was decided that Crash, Coco and Crunch experience their first day, while Jill and Aku Aku stayed at the hut and took it easy for the day. Jill however was relatively disappointed that she couldn't do what she enjoyed and was to miss out on her new friend's first day.

Ami quickly jogged outside from the hut, she stopped just where the grass met the sandy shores of N sanity beach and checked her watch on her left wrist. "We haven't got long! Hurry it up you three!".

Crunch slipped out second, "We didn't exactly have a supply store nearby, so I got nothin' to bring to any other classes. All I got is the spare clothes for gym". He presented his military camo designed rucksack he got way back whilst on a wander through the woods.

Ami waved her arm and made a 'pfft' sound, "They already got ya covered, pretty much all expenses and supplies are provided by the academy".

Crunch rubbed his chin, "You don't say? Pretty generous, if only things were so easy with those thugs we have to keep dealing with...".

"Gah!", Crash yelped behind them, upon inspection, he had tripped over at the front door, he already got a grass stain in his white shirt and shrugged it off, carrying his spare sports clothes in a cloth and withered bag. The notion of wearing such a tight shirt with a tie made him very uncomfortable, to the point where he was already trying to stretch out the collar. Both Crunch and Ami laughed with each other in a chill manner as they waited for Coco.

"All set!", the two turned around and saw Coco standing with a confident, heroic stance, her uniform being the same as Crunch's (she opted for no skirt), pink sneakers still and her phone in her hand along with her pink backpack.

Crunch pointed over to her, "It's just a uniform, Coco, and be careful you don't lose that thing".

Coco ignored him and took a quick picture of herself with her phone, then placed it back into her left pocket, she patted her thigh with a smug smirk to signify 'safe and sound', Crunch did the same back before they began their walk to school with Crash and Ami.

* * *

"I must interject, you aren't even trying to use it on something from the target location. I-I mean this is purely theoretical stuff, you can't just go straight into field practice. That's reckless at best".

"Listen here, you grease monkey lackey, I gave you a second chance from that rotten shack in a cave you lived in, you do not tell ME, of all people, what I cannot have... You know who I am. Everyone knows who I am, for a reason".

"Yes Ma'am, I apologise, I leave you to your plot, just hit the red button to your right once you input the coordinates".

"Gladly...".

* * *

Back inside, Jill and Aku Aku sat around in silence, it wasn't that things were too awkward between them, they just didn't know where to start, where to begin in a conversation. Aku was sure that Jill had many questions, especially about their long-fought enemies, maybe she was thinking what to ask first.

"Soooo" Aku began, "Enjoyed school so far?".

Jill laughed, "Funny, but yeah it's been great! Ami has been such a great teacher so far, she showed me this great recipe for a shake that's sure to help, I'll show you sometime. Still, crazy couple days, I can't believe you guys have to put up with those jerks day after day. It's gotta suck".

Aku Aku suddenly had a worrying sensation go through him at the mention of his adversaries, it almost spooked him at the coincidence, "That didn't feel right... I do apologise, Jill, but I believe I am needed somewhere... Else". Jill gave him the ok and Aku Aku promptly teleported away.

Jill sat staring at where he was, "Cool... Ah damn I need a drink now of all times". She leaned up and attempted to go and fetch a glass of water, but each other step stung something fierce. Suddenly she slipped, luckily, she grabbed the counter with both arms on her way down. Her heart rate may have spiked but she was ok. Jill glanced behind to her feet, where a small gold object lay. She knelt down carefully and grasped it, she was surprised who was inside the picture.

Jill spoke up, "This was just on the floor? Who's is it? Coco's?". Jill looked at the locket intently, then looked around, she was alone, but it wasn't hers to peek at. In a matter of seconds, she caved, and peered at the photo inside. "Hey, there's Ami on the right, man she hasn't aged a day", Jill noted, "Who're these other girls? They're so unique". However, her question went unheard as she was alone in silence.

* * *

"Our first day has finally arrived, guys, a day of discovery, questions and answers! A plethora of expertise lies just before us in a vast sea of knowledge! It's exactly as I dreamed it would feel", Coco stated, her eyes now with stars plastered on them, looking up at the main building.

The other two siblings weren't as invested as their dear sister, however Ami nodded in approval, feeling the energy of Coco's ramble.

"I like the narration, sis, now let's get inside already, we've been stood here for five minutes", Crunch replied gruffly, the lack of others around the building showing Crunch was right, it was already time for school to start. "Let's not begin by being known as slackers by default, huh?".

Coco breathed in and out, "Yeah, so what's our plan of action, Ami?".

Ami went to the main doors which opened accordingly, she pointed to the main desk, "That, is where Amanda comes in handy".

Amanda propped up her glasses, "Ah, Ami, you're just on time, good to see you!". As Amanda and Ami had a brief chat, and Amanda supplied the fresh students their timetables, the three walked through the double doors to their left. "All the main halls connect to each building! Think of it as a large square network!", Amanda yelled as the teens departed.

Ami leaned her right arm on the desk, "Ah, to be young".

Amanda rolled her eyes, "Stop it, Ami", she moaned playfully, "We're not gathering dust just yet, you're not even in your twenties yet".

Ami snickered, "I guess I can't complain, but man do I miss-". Ami's heart stopped, "What the?", she patted herself down on her midsection and then her pockets, her movements getting snappier. "No god no, where did it go?", Ami began panicking.

The phone next to Amanda began to ring, without looking she picked it up with her left hand and held it lax in her palm, "Hello, N sanity Academy, are you here to N role?", she said like it was a reflex at this point.

Ami put her hands over her eyes, "Stupid, stupid stupid, don't tell me I dropped it in the cave back there...".

"Alright well thanks for calling, have a nice day", Amanda ended the call and propped the phone back into place. "Wrong numbers... Whatcha lost, Ami?".

"A locket, it's gold, shaped like a wumpa fruit and has a carving on the back", Ami tried to symbolise the necklace part by tugging at her shirt collar.

Amanda hummed, "What's the carving like?".

Ami looked away sombrely, "It's not important, just please try to find it, I gotta get to the morning class with the upper years...". Ami walked off toward the sports building by going throught he same hall the siblings went through a few moments ago.

Amanda watched and sat still, once Ami left her sight, Amanda exhaled, "I'll keep an eye out, Ami", she said to herself.

* * *

Aku Aku reappeared, at the Elemental Prison, as he had hoped, they were all still locked up, they all groaned in unison except for Rok-ko, "Huh? What?", he asked, before doing the same, only later than everyone else. Aku Aku narrowed his eyes and flew up to Py-Ro.

Py-Ro cackled, "Look who has come back to grace us with his ever so wonderful presence, you're not welcome here, Aku Aku, didn't you get the hint last time?". Aku Aku stayed silent, "An interesting approach to cease some sort of information about me, but I am afraid you are out of luck, I don't know anything that's happening down on that rock you care so much about".

Aku Aku turned to face away from the fire elemental, "Something doesn't sit right with me, it's like I feel some sort of worrying premonition that something is going to go awry, and of course when I feel that, and if it could be a chaotic mess, I would have to check on all of you first".

"You really don't get it, do you?", a nasally voice interjected, Aku Aku looked to his left at the wind elemental, Lo-Lo, he was a light teal colour, with bloated cheeks and angular eyes, he had curved horns mimicking that of the wind, and a small swirled carving in his forehead. "You really think that your brother's up to something? We told you before, we don't have anything to do with him anymore. We're stuck here, it's been so many years, we can't reign like we used to. Yet you're here blowing a load of hot air at us, wake up".

Aku Aku exhaled slowly, "Perhaps you are right, I am sorry, I just can't shake these worries... You remember how it used to be, you four were always behind something, with Uka Uka tagging along, I just need to slow down and think instead of jumping to conclusions".

"That's damn right!", in the distance, Wa-Wa, the water elemental had blurted out, his mouth was as wide as his power's reach, nose just as big, with green irises imbued into his eyes, the sergeant sounding mask didn't look impressed. "We already accepted the world's changed, and we can't do what we please with it, just do us a favour, and leave us alone!".

Aku Aku nodded, "Alright, I am sorry for taking up your time again".

Just as he turned, Py-Ro then added, "And don't come back, much as we hate your twin, you're the last thing we want to see, along with those rotten fur balls". All four of them began to laugh to themselves obnoxiously, Aku turned to Py-Ro, then halted in place.

"A portal?", Aku said aloud.

"Ahahaha, what are you talking about?", Py-Ro asked impatiently, temper shortening "I told you to GET LOST!". He noticed Aku Aku's mile long stare, Py-Ro turned around, "Wh-what?", a deep blue warp portal was swirling toward Py-Ro. "What is this? Get back!", he couldn't even use his powers to combat this gateway, soon, it swallowed him whole, with him screaming. Then silence, the portal closed, and everyone stayed speechless.

"Alright", Lo-Lo then coughed out, "We may have a problem".

"Wait, what happened?", Rok-Ko said, seconds behind, everyone, including Aku Aku looked at him like he was an idiot.

* * *

Thankfully, Crash, Coco & Crunch all had their first lesson of the day set for chemistry, the most any of them knew about this was stuff Coco had read from various books she'd scavenged across the island. Crunch went in first, the door size seemed to accommodate those who were bigger in size too, which made sense, Crunch remembered seeing bears around here at one point.

He took notice of the interior look of the place, the dull grey colour palette that the academy seemed to like was also present here. The floor was laminated, reflecting the lights placed up above, he saw that the lab was set up with rectangular desks that could seat two people each, these were placed in pairs (with a small gap between them) on each side of the room, in rows going further and further to the rear of the classroom. A large space cut down the centre of the room, most likely for the teacher to keep track of everyone easier, and for students to have ease of access to anything like equipment. The windows to the back were letting most of the daylight in, as well as some of the courts set up out there too. "Somewhat cosy, I guess, where do we sit?", Crunch asked.

Coco walked past and took a seat in the front left row, furthest seat along, so she was by the wall, there were three vacant spaces to her left. "I don't know about you, but I get the feeling it's best to sit up here if we wanna learn". Crash and Crunch both shrugged and glanced to each other, they followed suit and sat on the same row. Crash sat in between his siblings and placed his spare clothes by his feet, the chairs were relatively comfy, yellow wooden class seats, but he wished he could lean back a bit at least...

Crunch pulled out his timetable and skimmed through it, two hours of this, then a small break, followed by him and Crash's first physical education class. He was glad he could at least experience what he wanted on the first day. Crunch leaned on the desk, which was also laminated, grey and wooden, he mumbled to himself as Crash glanced to his right. He didn't notice that there was a metal tube in the middle of each desk containing useful essentials for writing and such. That must've been what Ami meant earlier about all expenses covered... Crash had a big toothy smile as he reached out for a pencil.

Coco patted her palms on the desk waiting for everyone else to turn up, she looked around and saw a few notice posters and some facts about the subject in question, she was just lost in the prospect of being here finally, a new chapter could start. She then heard a squeaking sound, it was sharp, she looked under her desk, "What is that?". She then snapped her head to her left, and saw Crash pushing the eraser end of the pencil in one ear, and it was passing through out the other ear through is skull! Crunch looked at Crash, laughing to himself, "Crash!", Coco scolded, snatching the pencil out of his hand. "This is a tool provided by the school, not something you use to clean out the innards of your ears...", finishing her claim she placed the pencil down with her index and thumb, looking repulsed. Crunch snickered afterwards.

Soon, various animals came into the room claiming the many other seats, the only one left, was the one next to Crunch. The silence that was once occupying the class was now filled with a cacophony of chatter from everyone else. Following the students was a tall, slender, brown weasel, he wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, thus his forearms were visible, had short grey and white hair not even reaching past the back of his neck, black trousers and shoes, with small circular glasses balanced on his long nose. He moseyed over to the large foreboding desk that was his own. He had a book in his right hand that was agape, he looked around slowly to see most of the class in discussion, he took note of the three bandicoots in the front left who seemed to be silent and looking his way. Suddenly he slammed the book shut with both of his hands, the resulting bang made all the teens shut up instantly.

"...Thank you", the teacher grumbled, his voice quite gravely and bitter. Behind him was a piece of white chalk, he grabbed it and held it up next to his face. Behind him was the conventional green chalkboard, he efficiently and swiftly screeched the chalk across and spelled out his name for the class to see. 'MR. FINK', "Right, let's get started, you have been chosen by our new and vastly developing academy to achieve what will no doubt be, incredible knowledge. To have been given this chance, and to have your first lesson be mine, is nothing short of a great start for you all-".

The door burst open, a short, light brown furred female rabbit stumbled into the classroom and dropped her bag, causing a few books to slide out and go under the desk the bandicoots were sat. "Aw, shoot", she muttered, she began to pick up some of the books when Mr. Fink slammed his palm on his desk, everybody looked at him.

"You! Not only are you late for your first class but you make a scene as well? Name", he commanded.

"U-uh", she stuttered, her voice was very quiet and soft-spoken, "Emily, sir". After giving her name she straightened out her blazer and tie and dusted off her skirt.

"Emily... I see", Fink noted into a piece of paper, "Go and sit down, and don't let this nonsense happen again...".

"Right, sorry", Emily bundled up her books and put them back into her backpack, various students were looking at her and chatting among themselves, she scanned the room and saw only one seat was vacant, next to a hulking bandicoot... "Uh, excuse me, sir, may I occupy that spot, please?".

Crunch put away his timetable and turned to the little rabbit, "Huh?". His presence was making Emily incredibly intimidated, even though it wasn't Crunch's intention at all.

"I-I was wondering if I could sit there, please?", she had a slight southern drawl to her voice.

Coco leaned back, "Hey, you can come sit here, I know he looks like a big scary freak, but Crunch isn't all bad!". Crunch nodded, then stopped and glared at Coco. He and Crash then moved aside by one seat and Emily squeezed past, and firmly sitting down. Coco handed Emily a book which said 'Journal' on the cover, "Here, you dropped this".

"Thanks", Emily laughed softly, "I am sorry if it's a bother".

Coco shook her head, "Not at all, don't apologise for anything, I didn't see you around at N rolement, name's Coco".

Emily shook Coco's hand after hesitating, "Well, you already know mine", the two smiled, "I wasn't able to come to N rolement before, but my Pa had some connections and got me on board as he sent in some of my work to the engineers hosting a course".

Coco took note of Emily's small buck teeth, and how one was bigger than the other, her southern accent, similar fur colour... "I don't wanna seem presumptuous, but is your Dad called Rod, by chance?".

Emily's eyes widened, "You know Pa?".

Coco nodded, "Met him a few days ago, he helped make it possible for us to even get here, we live on this island".

"I see, we're on Middle Island like many others", Emily said quietly, it was clear she was nervous.

Coco leaned on the desk with her forearms, "Oh we know, in fact, he's the reason you guys are safe now", she claimed pointing to Crash, Emily looked at the direction Coco aimed.

Crash was reaching for one of the pencils provided on his new desk, Crunch kept slapping his brother's hand gently saying, "Stop it", each time.

Emily clasped her hands together, "Wow... He is pretty big and strong lookin', he's got that tough hero aura about him".

Coco then paused, "N-no, not him, I mean-".

"If you two have finally decided to stop jabbering in that corner, you can now pay attention to my class!", Fink bellowed. "Now, let's begin".

* * *

Nina was brought back to reality by the sounds of people chattering below her, she propped herself up and looked straight down from her window to see Pinstripe and his crew loading up boxes into their black mobster type vehicles. Nina knew Pinstripe wasn't lying about leaving earlier, but somehow seeing it actually happen in person made it all the more shocking to see.

Pinstripe turned and looked up at Nina, he gave a lax hand wave to signify a goodbye and lit a smoke to have while they drove. Nina waved back, she watched the pack drive off into the woods, no doubt they'd either seek refuge on the same island or use the boats to claim another area as their own. She turned around and sat on her bed, she bounced her right leg deep in thought, _"There's clearly things amiss right now, and the absence of the others is nothing but a clear sign. If something is up, then they're doing a terrible job of hiding it. And now supposedly those Brats are in on this too. It just isn't sitting right. If there was a way to completely blend in, even for just a few minutes, I could at least get confirmation"._ Then, she had the perfect idea come to mind.

Her uncle had various prototypes locked away near his bedroom, one that Nina remembered him talking about a lot was a full-fledged camouflage suit, able to adapt to any environment. Rumours were that it got past the testing stage... "I need to know what they're doing down there", Nina spoke aloud, "And come nightfall, I will see if you really have lost your way, Uncle, I won't be a sidekick!".


End file.
